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Traditional costal fishery is disappearing, because fishing rights and quotas are being capitalized. Pollution and over fishing significantly increase the issuing problems.

First we must establish beyond doubt that no matter which methods and tools, one employs, fishery is a hunt for natural resources. And that therefore, everyone must agree that we cannot create sustainable solutions for the future by relying exclusively on ever more sophisticated technologies and sience.

We must find new strategies.

Every year, many declarations are written, which describe the values that belong to our fishery as well as the threats that we are facing. We must now recognize that we have not been successful in persuading the authorities and the politicians that modern industrialized and capitalized fishery should adapt itself to our types of fishery, and not the other way around.

For the defence of our fishery, we therefore establish a global alliance – a world forum consisting of active fishers  in North, South, East and West, who join and respect the life forms and types of fishery that we take to be worth defending. We of course acknowledge that our strategy must take into consideration the economic differences between fishers from North and South. But those differences do not change our determination to now emphasize our professional and social common ground. It is on this common ground that our alliance is build.

The purpose of the alliance is to strengthen and develop our fishery everywhere on the globe. We do that by making visible our methods and strengths everywhere it is possible – on the internet, at common actions, happenings and gatherings across nations and regions. We do this with a positive strategy to make it clear to the outside world that coastal fishery is the fishery of the future, as opposed to the heavy, modernized fishery, which historically speaking is still very young – and will soon belong to the past!

We know that there will be fish for coming generations, for we know that capital will disappear from fishery, before the fish disappears from the ocean. But we are well aware that capital causes a lot of damage and destruction, before it seizes fire, and we must therefore work to ensure that it disappears as soon as possible out of fishery. This work must not drain us from energy, since our first priority must be to preserve coastal fishery, create a stronger identity, make it clear to the world that coastal fishery has what the world will demand from fishery in the future.

Once the politicians realize that the coastal fishers will not just go away, but on the contrary will organize themselves as active fishers everywhere and appear together on the internet, in public debates, and on the street, the politicians will be able to opt for the coastal fishermen, instead of for the capitalized fishery, which has been organized for this very purpose.

On behave on Living Sea board

Kurt Bertelsen Christensen

Bangkok 17. October 2008

This statement is inspired from:  The Hirtshals Declaration: http://gl.levendehav.dk/uk/dec-hirtshals.htm, The Grenaa declaration: http://www.norden.org/webb/pressrelease/pressrelease.asp?lang=6&id=1230 and ECOast Fish: http://gl.levendehav.dk/rapport.pdf

Landsforeningen Levende Hav

Hemmedvej 59, Hemmed

DK-8585 Glesborg

Denmark

www.levendehav.dk