October 31, 2012 — In bright blue body paint, members of Greenpeace hope encourage Congress to put scientific regulations on fishing quotas.
In a rather bizarre environmental protest, a crowd of 50 semi-nude demonstrators covered in blue body paint greeted Chilean politicians Tuesday outside the National Congress in Valparaiso.
Disguised as fish, members of Greenpeace Chile hoped to encourage politicians to consider sustainability when determining Chile’s new fishing law.
Protesters were concerned about how Chile’s new fishing law, which would attempt to prevent overexploitation of the fish population. The protesters take issue with the law’s emphasis on counting fish at the time of capture rather than at the time of docking.
“There is a significant difference between the moment of the catch and the landing,” the organization explained in a statement. “The second number does not reflect the amount that is actually fished.”
The number of fish registered as caught is documented once a boat reaches port, not in the actual moment of the catch out at sea. Greenpeace insists that before a boat docks, many dead fish are thrown overboard if quotas have already been met, therefore skewing the effectiveness of quotas and failing to protect endangered fish populations.
“In the next few weeks, senators have the opportunity to discuss clauses in the new law one by one,” Samuel Levia, organizer of Greenpeace Chile, said. “This will permit them to vote with a conscience about recuperating the fish population in Chile.”
Based on a study conducted by the Undersecretary of Fishing in 2010, 13 of the 22 kinds of commercial fish are classified as either highly exploited or overexploited.
Chile’s new fishing law was passed in the Chamber of Deputies in July and is currently making its way through the Senate to be voted on in mid-November. If passed, the law would in go into effect January 2013 and stand for the next 20 years.
Read the full story in the Santiago Times