How To Choose Sustainable Fish

As you know, there are many health reasons why we should eat more fish. But what we’re often not told is how our habits are affecting supply.

Many species are now in extreme danger due to lackadaisical regulation. The United Nations report that 76 per cent of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. The issue isn’t often discussed in the media, and it’s hard to find information about it. Which is where the Australian Marine Conservation Society comes in.

The Society has a guide which is available from its website. It outlines the sustainability of over 60 species, explaining how they’re caught, and the extent to which they’re in danger. It also gives the common names for a species, so when you’re next at the fishmongers, you’ll know what fish is what. Australian author Tim Winton is the Society’s patron, and his introduction to the guide is a compelling argument for why we should care deeply about this issue.

“It’s tempting to shrug in despair at the enormity of many environmental crisis,” he writes. “Yet in this instance the consumer has real power. Our buying habits at the market or restaurant can shape commercial reality. The choices we make as individuals and groups can have tangible and multiplying effects on the market. We can feel literally empowered by making informed decisions, by favouring sustainable fisheries, by voicing our concerns, by voting with our wallets as well as our feet.”

Here are some bits of information from the guide I found interesting:

• The Society doesn’t support aquaculture, ie the deliberate cultivation of aquatic plants and animals. Some of the fish bred this way in Australia include barramundi, southern bluefin tuna, snapper, mulloway, Atlantic salmon and trout
• Food labelled ‘dolphin safe’ is not necessarily sustainable. Also be aware that there is no independent regulation of the use of ‘dolphin safe’ labels
• Cheap seafood is often imported from unsustainable fisheries and aquaculture farms overseas. Find out where your fish comes from. Ask your fishmonger lots of questions

Fish that the Society suggests we should avoid include swordfish, sea-cage kingfish, sea perch, southern blue fin tuna, Atlantic salmon, sea-cage ocean trout … The list goes on. It’s interesting that the fish we most commonly see on menus and in fish shops are on this list.

Seafood on the ‘Better Choice’ list include Australian salmon, blue swimmer crab, wild bream, squid, octopus, flathead and wild mullet.

The guide has a lot of other information which challenges common views about seafood. If you care about the subject, then you can buy the guide here.

If you’d like to read more on the subject you can go to the following organisations:

• CSIRO
• The United Nations
• Overfishing.org

Find out which fish are in season in March here.

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