Down to Earth Blog

How to Combat Overfishing: Today there is a new story out about how the populations of all seafood face collapse in 2048 if the trends of overfishing and pollution continue.

What can you do as a seafood consumer to help improve the situation? Several things, it turns out. As the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Web site states, "Your seafood choices make a difference!"

 - Buy sustainable seafood (see regional seafood guides or print out a pocket guide to carry in your wallet). According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, "sustainable seafood" comes from sources, "either fished or farmed, that can maintain or increase production into the long-term without jeopardizing the affected ecosystems." Overfishing means catching fish faster than they can reproduce; sustainable fisheries don't do that. (An earlier post of mine looked at an article that described the impacts of overfishing on small fishing towns.)

The Audubon Society has a national seafood guide card you can print out here.

Monterey also encourages consumers to spread the word about sustainable seafood, ask businesses to carry sustainable seafood and thank those that do.

Seafood lovers note that there are more types of seafood listed on the "okay to eat" lists (wild Alaskan salmon, for one) than on the "avoid" list -- so you have plenty of choices of seafood to eat with a clear conscience.

Do you eat only sustainable seafood?

Technorati Tags: Overfishing, Seafood, Fish, Sustainable Seafood

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• #2 Comment from skullhunter59
  3/11/07 5:05 PM | Permalink

  I enjoy the taste of fresh and salt water fish and shellfish but I feel so bad about the decimation of wild ocean fish stocks that I don't eat them. I do buy smoked oysters.  I assume they reproduce fairly rapidly but I'm not sure. I doubt that many people even consider the impact on fish populations when they buy fish in the supermarket. I have to agree with the first reply here, Asia seems resistant to self regulation. They have huge populations to feed. Therein lies the whole problem today, too many human beings.  We are part of the equation too, but we are out of balance with the Earths' ability to support us.  We are the only species with the ability to recognize this and do something about it.  Will we?
• #1 Comment from stevadore39
  11/4/06 11:07 AM | Permalink

  THE NATIONS THAT WILL JUST BRUSH THIS STUDY OFF ARE THE ASIAN NATIONS. JAPAN, CHINA, RUSSIA, INDONESIA, VIETNAM, MALAYSIA WILL CONTINUE OVERFISHING. THE WEST HAS TO LOOK INTO FARMING FISH. THE PROBLEM IS THE ENVIRONMENT THAT FARM BRED FISH ARE BRED, BECOME POLLUTED REAL QUICK.  MOVING THESE FARMS FARTHER OFF SHORE MAY HELP, BUT WAT ABOUT SPECIES LIKE TUNA, BILLFISH [ MARLIN, SWORDFISH ETC.] WAT DO WE DO?  AS WITH THE SUMMIT WITH GLOBAL WARMING, THEY NED A SUMMIT FOR THIS ISSUE--QUICK.