Quirky chippy video shows Clyde’s sparse fish stocks

A campaign complete with toungue-in-cheek video has been launched to revive the River Clyde’s dwindling fish stocks.
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The Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (SIFT) launched the ‘Revive the Clyde’ campaign on the River Clyde in central Glasgow this morning.

Campaign supporters posed with ‘Revive the Clyde’ branded lifesavers and a fish and chip shop worker unveiled the locally-caught ‘Firth of Clyde Special’ fish supper – a fish-supper containing a tiny fish, representing all that’s currently left in the Firth of Clyde.

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The ‘Firth of Clyde Special’ features in a campaign video that was also launched today. The video uses hidden cameras to capture the reactions of unsuspecting locals in a Greenock chippy when they are served with the ‘Firth of Clyde Special’.

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The Firth of Clyde’s fish are now too scarce or small to support a commercial fishery.

All that remains of what was at one time a major employer across the west and south west of Scotland is a tiny remnant herring fishery. Over 99.5% of the catch that is now landed from the Clyde is shellfish.

The ‘Revive the Clyde’ campaign is an initiative of the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (SIFT). The campaign aims to gain public support to encourage the Scottish Government to revive the Firth of Clyde marine environment in order to create a more diverse fishery, which will boost job numbers and job security and make the local economy more resilient. SIFT is proposing a fisheries management regime based on more local input and sound scientific advice.

As part of the campaign, SIFT is asking members of the public to sign up to the Clyde Charter on the campaign website at www.revivetheclyde.org and to follow and like the campaign on Twitter and Facebook.

Charles Millar, Chief Executive of SIFT, said:

“The Revive the Clyde campaign aims to support local jobs and empower communities around the whole of the Firth of Clyde by reviving a once great fishery that is now badly degraded and under threat. We’re asking members of the public to help us encourage the Scottish Government to manage the remaining Clyde fisheries in a way that utilises the best scientific evidence and maximizes local input, to ensure both fish in and jobs on the Clyde for future generations. Those wanting to help us can sign up on the ‘Revive the Clyde’ website at www.revivetheclyde.org.”