HUGH Fearnley-Whittingstall began touring Europe with his “fish fight” campaign yesterday, starting in Brussels, the home of the European Union.

The tour will undoubtedly make good television viewing, but the facts that inspire the celebrity chef’s campaign make for sorry reading.

About half of the fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back dead.

They are “discard”, tossed over the side, even though they are edible.

This scandalous waste of nature’s resources is because fish, unfortunately, do not understand the quota system which is the basis of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Fish inconveniently live together, regardless of size and type. Therefore, it is impossible for trawlermen to avoid catching fish which the CFP bans them from landing. Even cod, haddock and plaice, which the CFP is supposed to be protecting, are thrown back dead if they are “over-quota”.

Even the EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki accepts that this is madness and that the CFP needs reform. The difficulty is in finding the pan-European political will to draw up new complex rules that are more applicable to the way that fish live.

However, Europe is not wholly to blame for this mess. Indeed, as fish are pesky blighters and do not abide by national boundaries, the European level may be the most appropriate place to come to agreement about preserving our fish stocks.

We, as consumers, also have to ask whether we are happy with our role in the discards, because flounder, dab, coley and pouting are also thrown back dead. They are perfectly edible – Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall has the recipes to prove it – but we turn up our noses at them, preferring cod, salmon and tuna.

It is right to rage at the stupid bureaucrats of Brussels whose ridiculous rules are causing the problem.

But, as with so many environmental issues from climate change downwards, we all need change our habits just a little, as well.