Page 12 - German article - UK translation

2000 tonnes of Azorean fish are canned here every year. One fish fits into six to ten
cans, because only 40 percent of its mass remains at the end of the process. 6o percent,
bones, head, tail, are processed into fishmeal.

What all sounds so obvious and simple is a niche market. Worldwide, only four
percent of the total fish catch is caught by fishing rod. In the Azores, too. Miguel
Machete explains that this fishing method only became established in the Azores
when US immigrants returned in the 1930s to 1960s.

The marine biologist from the independent, regional marine research institute Popa
in Horta accompanies the fishery scientifically. “For 21 kilos catch” says the 46-year-
old, “only one kilo of prey fish is needed at Pole and Line. Ecologically, this is a huge
advantage, even over aquaculture, from which every second fish in the world now
comes. This is because the production of predatory fish requires many times more
feed fish. As also in the floating pens of tuna ranches, where caught bluefin tuna are
fattened like cattle until they are ready for slaughter. Charles Redfern would never
include their meat in his product range, he says.

Redfern now talks about the Netflix documentary “Seaspiracy”, which has been
running since last year, and which has stirred him up quite a bit. “Well,” he says, there
are shocking truths to be seen. How powerful corporations maintain death factories
with massive state subsidies. How their huge fishing fleets ravage the seabed with
trawl nets. How industrial fish factories use echo sounders, radar and helicopters to
track down whole shoals of tuna and how drift nets as big as cathedrals threaten
entire populations. Tons of sharks, dolphins and even whales get killed as by-catch.
Industrial fishing is the problem, Redfern says. “It’s certainly not us.”