Eating fish regularly is a common feature in healthy eating guidelines. Seafood provides protein for over 3 billion people globally, as well as other important nutrients such as zinc, vitamin D and omega-3 fats.
But there are bigger issues pressing that need to be addressed. Recent research has highlighted the potential issues with over-fishing and questions whether we should reduce or stop eating seafood altogether, to allow stocks to recover and to be more sustainable.
Why do we need to think about seafood sustainability?
The average amount of fish consumed per person has more than doubled during the last half a century placing enormous pressure on our seas. A third of global fish stocks are ‘overfished’, and some fishing practices have been linked to destruction of natural habitats. Climate change also threatens global seafood production by leading to warmer water temperatures and ocean acidification.
How can we choose more sustainable seafood?
According to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), 80% of the seafood we eat in the UK comes from just 5 different species – cod, haddock, salmon, tuna, and prawns. This can place pressure on a smaller number of wild stocks or farmed species than if we chose a greater variety when shopping. The MCS has recently recommended sustainable swaps that we can try such as eating Hake instead of Cod, Mackerel instead of Tuna and replacing Salmon with Rainbow Trout.
There are several certification and eco-labelling schemes that have been developed to set standards for different aspects of seafood sustainability, including how stocks are fished, animal welfare, as well as fair treatment of workers. These can help us identify fish which has been caught or farmed more sustainably.
Ongoing efforts and initiatives
Ensuring a sustainable future for our oceans will require ongoing efforts from global governments. Progress towards this includes initiatives like the Global Ocean Alliance ‘30by30’, which aims to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Innovations in the fishing industry will also play their part, including the use of more sustainable fishing equipment, or the use of insects, plant-based ingredients, and even protein produced from bacteria, as alternative ingredients in fish feeds, but we need to also play our part.
While it is true that eating seafood raises issues around sustainability, if we all do what we can to encourage more sustainable practices, we can help ensure a future where there are plenty more fish in the sea too.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that our oceans are depleted to the point where once common species are now threatened.
Not only do we need to change the way we fish but perhaps more importantly we need to change our buying habits, to ensure stocks of threatened species can naturally replenish so that we can fish sustainably, before the damage we have caused is irreversible.
Source: https://www.nutrition.org.uk
What I love about your blog is that one blog at a time, you post about the things that matter to you, and you include things you think we should know about; you care about what happens. You make the process to care easier. It is important to care, to leave the planet in tact for future generations.
So, this blog is important too, thank you for posting it and reminding us of the selfish damage we continue to inflict on our planet, but also it's not too late to change and to do something about it.
We seem to be of the view that the planet is ours to do what we wish, but in reality we are nothing more than just another species living on it.
The difference is we have 'advanced' beyond the point of living in equilibrium with the planet, but are depleting its resources unlike every other species inhabiting it. All in the name of economic progress.
There is an irony here in that we are killing the planet and ourselves in the process and don't seem to care. Thats not what I'd call progress, truthfully more like ignorant greed.
Thank you. Your response is spot on, difficult to read in part, but it needs to be said. Although the government are primarily the source of our ecology problems through them wanting economic growth, individually we also contribute.
Today's blog is about the oceans, about sustainability, but it is not just the oceans. It wasn't difficult to notice that once the UK government opened the country up, advertisers are back to advertising holidays. It's clear people are very much back into their lives, back into the same old habits.
There isn't a day go by where I am thinking about the bigger picture, how I can help make the world a better place, through my blog and lifestyle.
I am giving us the opportunity to think about our lifestyles; to change little things, which will help us pay it forward. What I write about is out there, they are already issues. I make it more palatable.
I care about those things, and we are running out of time. It is not enough for Ecologists and Royalty to step up to the plate, they need everyone to do the same. It is food for thought here.
We should be doing more to help save the planet. The natural world was here long before we were, it is important to give back, to live more sustainable lives so that they may also live.
Through our lifestyles, we are destroying their habitats. It also means we are robbing future generations (including our children's children and their children) of their lives.