Plenty More Fish in the Sea?
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Plenty More Fish in the Sea? |
For most of human history the fish of the sea has been regarded as a limitless resource. However, since the advent of modern, industrial scale fishing, fish stocks, like all our natural resources, have come under intense pressure. The Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that nearly 70% of the world’s fish stocks are now fully fished, over-fished, or depleted. 40 of the 60 main commercial fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic are outside safe biological limits, or heavily overfished. In the North Sea many once common species such as cod, haddock, skate and plaice are now overfished and in the case of cod, stocks are on the verge of commercial collapse, whilst common skate is virtually extinct.
As stocks decline fishermen are moving into deeper waters in search of new sources and in some cases this has resulted in the destruction of unique habitats and overfishing of species we know nothing or very little about. .
Many of the world's poorest people depend on fish for their survival. Approximately 1 billion people depend on fish for their main source of animal protein whilst the diets of 2.6 billion people depend on fish to some extent. World wide 200 million people earn all or part of their income for fishing. .
For those of us who eat fish we can contribute to the sustainability of global fisheries by demanding that the fish we eat is from sustainably managed stocks and that the way in which it is caught or farmed causes minimum damage to the marine environment.
The labelling of fish (for whole fish and fillets) with information on the species' common name, area of capture and method of production i.e. whether wild and caught at sea, or farmed, is now required by law throughout the EU., and should appear on the packaging. However, no information relating to the method or the state of the stock from which the species is derived is yet required. Recently, organic standards have been developed for farmed fish in the UK by the Soil Association and Organic Food Federation with accredited products marked on their packaging. The RSPCA also accredits certain farmed fish with it’s ‘Freedom Food’ symbol which covers standards affecting all aspects of animal welfare.
The Marine Conservation Society provides lists of those fish you can eat without compromising sustainability and those we should avoid. A pocket ‘Good Fish guide’ can be downloaded from their web site here.
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Action for Sustainable Living, St Wilfrid's Enterprise Centre, Royce Road, Hulme, , M15 5BJ.Email: [email protected] Tel: 0845 634 4510 Fax: 0870 167 4655 |