Fishlove was founded in the United Kingdom in 2009 to help highlight the unsustainable fishing practices that are currently destroying our earth’s marine ecosystem.

“The global marine ecosystem will collapse within a generation if unsustainable fishing practices are allowed to continue,” states Fishlove. And they further state, “The North Sea has been one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, but catches have fallen from 3.5 million tonnes a year in 1995 to less than 1.5 million tons in 2007.”

The photographs below are part of Fishlove’s current campaign to raise awareness for overfishing, and were taken by the French photographer Denis Rouvre.

Gillian Anderson with Conger Eel:

Jenny Spark with Stone Bass:

Goldie with Redfish:

Olivia Williams with Sabre Fish:

Thomas Dutronc with Dusky Grouper

Aure Atika with Spotlight Parrotfish

Jean-Marc Barr with Mako Shark

Joanna Bergin with Mackerel

Nickolas Grace with Red Mullet

Caroline Ducey with Barracuda

While I was drawn to these photographs for their seemingly stark use of sexuality, I’d rather keep our attention moving in the direction of over-fishing. Because after all, we can talk about the politics of hypersexuality in the media all day. But what really needs to be talked about is over-fishing.

So, rather than debate as to whether or not these images are appropriate, in this case I am simply glad that they are because they grabbed my attention and netted me into this issue through their campaign’s odd artistic choices.

While there is some research located on Fishlove’s website (though not as much as one might presume), I will also leave the reader with this very informative, and visual, video that accurately depicts the issue at large:

“Fish is the daily source of protein for 1.2 billion people…some scientists say that within the last 60 years stocks of large fish have fallen by 90%. They are warning that we are facing the collapse of all types of fish species in less than 50 years. The reason for this—over-fishing. “

On December 10th the European Union convened to place a vote on a current proposal to end bottom trawling (the leading cause of over-fishing).

Trawling occurs when huge nets are dragged across the ocean floor (nets that are the size of 13 jumbo jets, as the above video states). Bottom trawling not only catches desired fish populations, in mass quantities (which in itself is a problem), but also ensnares other valuable marine life, and is destroying entire marine habitats.

The EU voted against banning bottom trawling, saying the elimination of this technology entirely would incur a massive amount of unemployment in the commercial fishing industry. Their vote was softened with the disclaimer that more studies will be undertaken to determine fragile spots within our marine ecosystem, and where this determined fragility lies, bottom trawling will be banned.

Needless to say, environmentalists were not happy about this, and neither am I.

Please share this article if you believe there is more that we should do to prevent over-fishing.

Let’s get to work.

Want 15 free additional reads weekly, just our best?

Get our weekly newsletter.

Editor: Bryonie Wise

Photos: My Modern Met  & flickr