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The study commissioned by Seas At Risk, Sciaena, Ecologistas en Accion and BUND, shows how the current political economy of fisheries in the European Union favours large scale industrial fisheries to the detriment of small-scale and low-impact fisheries. Small-scale fishers are key players for coastal communities, as they create jobs and are often much more sustainable compared to their larger counterparts.  This sustainability role is critical since fishing is the first driver of marine biodiversity loss. Favouring industrial fisheries rather than small scale and low-impact fisheries is not due to flaws in the current legislation but, rather, to a lack of full implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy which already offers a series of tools to tackle the root problems. NGOs call for a full implementation and enforcement of the Common Fisheries Policy. 

The Department of Environmental Health hosted a film screening of the award-winning documentary, Until the End of the World, which examines the environmental and community impacts of fish farming. The screening was followed by a panel discussion and lively Q&A featuring filmmaker Francesco De Augustinis, as well as Alessandro Bocconcelli, Matthew Hayek, Doug Frantz, and Catherine Collins, and moderated by Eva Douzinas, President of the Rauch Foundation.  Petros Koutrakis, Professor of Environmental Health, introduced the film, drawing a parallel between the rise of industrial agriculture in the last century, and this century’s growth of aquaculture.

Fishing communities are leading a global fight to stop the industrial farming of shrimp and fish. They say these farms are toxic for their territories and that the world's food needs can be better met by revitalising wild fisheries and small scale, sustainable aquaculture systems. But they are up against powerful opponents. Industrial aquaculture is a US$300 billion business controlled by large multinational corporations and powerful local businessmen. With the support of governments, they are moving aggressively to not only keep their farms afloat, but to expand production to new territories.

In Patagonia Films’ For the Love of the Sea, a family pioneers a movement to revive the Welsh coastline and a fishing industry that locals have depended on for decades. The documentary short follows Câr y Môr, the first community-owned regenerative ocean farm in Wales. Cultivating versatile crops like seaweed with zero-input techniques, the community reveals the powerful ways that the ocean can help fight climate change while nourishing people in more ways than one.