Eating fish

The other evening, I was buying some fish for my tea. And I was finding it tricky. I was bewildered by the different labels on the packs of fish that seemed to suggest they were more ethical. There were fish that were “line-caught”. Fish that were an “RSPCA freedom food”. Some that were “Marine Steward Council-certified” and several others that suggested other seemingly eco credentials.

As most people are, I’m also aware that many species of fish are on the brink of extinction – most famously cod. So what varieties of fish should I be buying? What do the many labels mean, which are the best and which are worth paying a little bit more for?

So in order to understand the solutions, I decided to find out what the problems are.

Wild fish issues

The global fish catch increased five times in the second half of the twentieth century. And it’s still growing. So many fish have been caught that only a quarter of fish species are not in some kind of trouble.

Over half of the world’s fish stocks are being fished to the limit of what is sustainable. Nearly a fifth are being over exploited. And 8% are now seriously depleted. The number of cod spawning in the North Sea is considered to be only a third of the bare minimum needed to maintain its population. In other words it’s dying out. Because we are catching and eating more than are born. Well done us.

However, it’s not necessarily eating it that’s the problem. It’s partly about the way it’s caught. As fishing has become more industrial, with massive driftnets gathering every living thing in their path, the amount of bycatch has increased. Bycatch is stuff that you didn’t set out to catch. It includes turtles, sea-birds, seals, whales and sharks as well as huge quantities of small fish that are thrown back dead. So in order to catch a few fish you do want, you also catch and kill a load of stuff you don’t. Very wasteful.

Bottom trawling – used to catch prawns, scallops, plaice, clams and snapper amongst others – is even worse. It involves dragging a fine net across the bottom of the sea-bed. This completely destroys delicate ecosystems and has probably wiped out many spiecies we didn’t even know about.

Farmed-fish issues

99% of the salmon we eat in the UK is farmed and not wild. Unfortunately, farming fish (or aquaculture as it’s known in the trade) is not the answer. It comes with its own, even worse problems.

Salmon, trout and many other commonly farmed fish are carnivorous. They eat other fish. So in order to produce a kilo of salmon, you need to feed it five kilos of other fish. The other fish is caught in the wild. So eating farmed salmon is like eating five wild fish. Blimey.

Salmon also excrete a lot of phosphorus. This ends up in the surrounding waters and suffocates things that live on the seabed and creates other toxic side affects. And much like intensively farmed meat, farmed fish are also given antibiotics, growth promoting drugs and colouring. Salmon should be grey, not pink. And all this weird stuff also ends up in the water and is messes about with things living naturally. It’s likely to still be present in the fish we eat too. Yuck.

There’s also the problem of escapee salmon. The WWF estimate that over 600,000 farmed salmon escape from Norwegian farms every year. These fish breed with wild salmon.  This causes a kind of negative evolution. The wild fish become less able to deal with natural conditions and are more likely not to survive. Oops.

And farmed king or tiger prawns, the kind you get at your local Indian, are even worse. So bad that they deserve a separate blog post.

Herbivorous, vegetarian farmed fish are less problematic as you don’t need to feed them other fish. These include carp and various less glamorous fish along with shellfish such as mussels, oysters and clams.

So what can you do?

Labels

The best option is to buy fish marked with the Marine Steward Council blue tick.

The MSC promote a responsible approach to fishing and monitor best practice. They award the mark to fisheries that can demonstrate they are committed to maintaining and re-establishing fish populations and who consider the biological, social and environmental impact of how they fish.

Currently there are only a small number of certified fisheries but the number is growing. Supermarkets now stock MSC-certified Pollock and Salmon from Alaska, New Zealand Hoki, Pacific Cod and Mackerel, Herring and Dover Sole from the UK. There’s a full list of stockists and what they have on offer on the MSC website.

As for other labels, line-caught is a good sign as it means they have used a line and not a massive drift net to catch it and so there is unlikely to be much bycatch. However, if what they’ve caught is North Sea cod, it’s still not sustainable.

The RSPCA freedom food label is applied to farmed fish. This guarantees better animal welfare but their standards are not as high as organic.

If you buy farmed fish, then organic is the best option. Organic fish will have been farmed in less intensive conditions and will not have been given antibiotics or colourings. That’s why organic salmon is not as pink as the standard stuff. Wild fish can never be classed as organic. Because it’s wild, you don’t know what it’s eaten.

Be picky with varieties

The other important thing is not to buy fish that is endangered. There’s a full list on the MSC-run site, fishonile.org but here’s some general rules.

Don’t buy Atlantic salmon, cod (except from Iceland), ling, monkfish, plaice (except from the Irish Sea), Snapper, Sword Fish, Tiger/King prawns (except organic), Skate, Sturgeon, Swordfish and Tuna (except dolphin-friendly, line-caught yellow fin and skipjack).

Do buy carp, clams, cockles, cuttle fish, pollock, black bream, seabream, Dover sole, Dublin Bay prawns, flounder, grey gurnard, herring, hoki, mackerel, red mullet, mussels sprat and whitling.

UK-caught fish also has less food miles so mackerel, herrings and Dover sole are a good bet.

Also, try not to buy small fish. These won’t have had chance to breed and should have been thrown back.

So next time I’m out looking for a fish supper, I’m going to avoid the salmon, unless its an organic treat. I’m going to try and avoid the cod and the haddock and try and go for something a bit more unusual. And if possible, I’m going to buy the one with the MSC blue tick and think twice about buying it if it doesn’t have one.

And I also might stop using the phrase “Plenty more fish in the sea”. Because there aren’t.

Advertisement