PETA requests Welsh fishing town change mackerel tradition to ‘cabbage’ festival

Abby Neve

PETA has sent a letter to the president of a yacht club asking them to rebrand their annual Mackerel Fiesta as a ‘Cabbage Fiesta’.

The letter requests that the Yacht Club swap the fish focused festivities for an ‘animal friendly’ celebration of Welsh produce and offered to provide a papier-mâché cabbage to replace the festival’s mackerel effigy.

The annual festival is a long-running Aberaeron Yacht Club tradition in which a papier-mâche mackerel is paraded through the town and ceremonially burned in a playful end-of-season “funeral” to mark the close of the fishing year.

The letter, addressed to Lloyd Thomas, the president of Aberaeron Yacht Club, reads: “Celebrating life-giving plant produce rather than fish slaughter would be more in line with the compassion and warmth Wales is known for.

Plus, you’d be supporting local growers, like Blaencamel Organic Farm, famed for its vibrant cabbage and fennel, amid 50 sustainable acres of fruit and veggies.

It would also be an investment in Aberaeron, because animal-free diets are not only optimal for health, but also curb climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use by as much as 75%.”

The letter also points out that fish are intelligent creatures. PETA Vice President of Vegan Projects Dawn Carr said:

“Fish aren’t swimming vegetables – they’re thinking, feeling individuals who experience pain and fear just as we do,” says PETA Vice President of Vegan Projects Dawn Carr.

“By celebrating Welsh-grown produce instead of hauling sensitive animals from the sea, Aberaeron could create a fiesta that’s kinder, greener, and rooted in a more compassionate future.”

The charity PETA’s motto reads that “animals are not ours to eat,” and promotes veganism as an ethical lifestyle choice.

Anne Evans, the owner of Blaencamel Organic Farm, was surprised to be mentioned in the letter. She doesn’t share PETA’s views.

“I think mackerel are good and cabbages are good. Anything that is local and well produced and not overly processed is okay.”

Responding, local county councillor Elizabeth Evans told Local Democracy Reporter Bruce Sinclair: “The Aberaeron Mackerel Festival is a celebration of a fish which has been in our local waters for generations. It is a festival of gratitude and respect.

“Whilst many may have a different view, fishing has reduced dramatically in the bay, as has fishing more generally. I often say that as coastal communities, we have turned our back on the sea. We do not have a single fishing boat in Aberaeron now, that is a matter of regret not celebration. Yet Cardigan Bay is not over-fished, and the local boat owners that fish these waters, do so sustainably.

“Aberaeron also sits within the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation. Yet fishing is part of our heritage in Aberaeron, the growing of cabbages is not. Our river anglers also adhere to the catch and release government scheme to protect particular dwindling stocks.

“Whilst I respect the views expressed in the letter by PETA, it does not reflect our lived experience as a community, which is one of respect not entitlement. The huge industrial trawlers which fish the waters around the UK are quite a different matter altogether.”

While the charity cites animal rights as a reason to cancel the festivities, campaigners have raised questions over the sustainability of mackerel fishing.

In 2024, UK boats hauled in over 230,000 tonnes of mackerel – making it the country’s most caught species by far.

Mackerel is currently categorised as ‘very overfished’ by the Marine Conservation Society.

This year in February, supermarket Waitrose made the decision to suspend Mackerel sales.

Aberaeron Yacht Club were unavailable for comment.

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