The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has launched a digital petition as
part of its campaign for better fishing by the European Union's fishing
fleet. WWF is calling for better protection of the marine environment
including fishing methods that will reduce the number of cetaceans that
become entangled in fishing gear. You can sign the petition at:
http://panda.org/stopoverfishing/petition
Help us promote the petition by playing "The Seagull Strikes Back!" and
passing it on to your friends.
The game (which I'm sure will amuse you!) is at:
http://www.panda.org/stopoverfishing/seagullstrikes/
(You may need to download a flash player to see it -
http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/)
Petition entries will be used for a Digital Demonstration in Brussels
next month when EU Fisheries Ministers meet to decide on the reform of
the Common Fisheries Policy.
About WWF's Stop Overfishing Campaign
WWF is calling for the elimination of EU subsidies that promote
overfishing and for better protection of the marine environment.
Current fishing practices in the EU have a huge impact on the marine
environment. Sensitive habitats such as seagrass beds and deep sea
corral reefs are destroyed by trawling gear and little effort is made to
control the millions of tons of 'bycatch' discarded each year.
The campaign is also concerned with cetacean conservation. According to
the Cetacean Bycatch Action Network (http://www.cetaceanbycatch.org),
entanglement in fishing gear is the single greatest threat to cetaceans
worldwide. And the EU fisheries catch their share of cetaceans, for
example, in the North, Baltic and Celtic seas up to 10,000 harbour
porpoises are caught in fishing gear each year. The Baltic population
has almost been wiped out.
WWF's digital petition will be presented to European Union Fisheries
Ministers when the meet in December to decide on the reform of the
Common Fisheries Policy. The Policy has an impact well beyond European
waters as European boats fish on the high seas in all the world's
oceans. And the EU has signed access agreements with third countries in
Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.
For more information on the WWF European Fisheries Campaign check out:
http://panda.org/stopoverfishing
Regards
WWF European Fisheries Campaign
Email: [log in to unmask]
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