Marine Conservation

[watervole]

I hope it comes as no suprise to my readers that many species of fish are being fished to commercial (and sometimes total) extinction.  It's a form of madness that is destroying the ocean environment and will shortly leave us with no exploitable stock of many fish that we love to eat. (to catch the vast majority of cod before they are large enough to breed, is a little careless to say the least.  You think we'd have learned from the collapse of the Newfoundland cod industry, but apparantly not...)

For those of you who want to know what fish they can eat with a clean conscience, I suggest this site http://www.fishonline.org/

For easy reference when you are out shopping or at a restaurant the Marine Conservation Society has also produced a Good Fish Pocket Guide. This wallet-sized list of the Fish to Eat and the Fish to Avoid is available FREE from MCS on receipt of a SAE to Marine Conservation Society, Unit 3 Wolf Business Park, Alton Road, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5NB.

Or you can ask me for one - I ususually carry a spare so I have one to give to anyone who asks.  It's tiny enough to fit in my purse, brightly coloured and easy to read and just has a 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe' rating for each species of fish I'm likely to see in the shops.

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

It's one of the reasons I shop at Waitrose, they are an MCS partner. More info here: http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/foodexpertise/meatandpoultryatwaitrose/fishatwaitrose.asp

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I see they use exclusively Icelandic cod. Makes sense - that's the only well-managed cod fishery in the world. If we looked after our cod stocks the way they looked after theirs, we'd have a lot more cod in our waters.

Pity I don't have a local Waitrose or I'd definitely use it.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

No surprise to me, I've virtually given up eating fish except for the ones I know are farmed(salmon and trout). It's nice to find a list of wild fish that I can buy with a clear conscience

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I hate to disillusion you, but not all farmed fish are environmentally friendly. Farmed salmon (being carniverous) are usually fed on other fish - which have been caught by the usual methods...

One of the best options is shellfish. Many of them score very highly on the environment score, as they can be farmed in totally non-damaging ways.

Sadly, I'm badly allergic to mussels, otherwise I'd eat loads of them.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Bother, still fresh salmon was a very rare buy, now don't tell me trout is also fed other fish. I can't make myself eat shellfish I'm afraid, I learned too much about their feeding habits in college.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

THe MSC give a thumbs up to organically farmed trout. Here are their general comments on fish farms and why there can be problems http://www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/fisheries/fish+farming

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I don't need any MCS guide: I have eaten fish precisely once in the last 20 years, some salmon served up on a flight back from Tunisia. It tasted of dessicated cardboard but I think that had more to do with being served up by an airline.

[tobesv.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. It staggers me to think that its broadly accurate to say "There are no fish. We ate them."

[purple-peril.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough I was looking for just such a resource just recently.
Thanks for that.