According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program, the present rate of consumption will cause the world's wild-caught seafood fisheries to collapse by the year 2050.
The stark reality is that most of the seafood on the market today is still caught or farmed in an unsustainable fashion. The only way we can responsibly justify keeping seafood in our diet is by making choices that help preserve the abundance of wild fish populations, protect ocean habitats, and support environmentally responsible fish farming.
Sorting out the benefits of buying farmed or wild fish requires digesting a bit of information. Wild fish are never a good choice when they have been caught with miles-long fishing lines, called longlines, that also kill many other species. Worse still are the dredging trawl nets that not only indiscriminately kill a wide variety of species, but also destroy vast areas of seafood habitat. Studies show that for every pound of shrimp caught in trawl nets, approximately 10 lbs. of other seafood is killed and dumped back into the ocean. To add more confusion, seafood caught with longlines and trawl nets are often labeled "wild caught," along with the seafood caught by more environmentally friendly methods. Many restaurants simply do not have relevant information about the fish they provide.That is why it is so important for customers to constantly ask questions about the sourcing of their seafood.
The wild choice is not always the best choice. Farmed fish are not a good choice if the farming methods pollute the surrounding water or destroy vital wetland habitats. Fish escaping from gigantic fish farms can carry disease into wild fish populations and the larger genetically-modified fish have the potential of eliminating wild species altogether through selective mating. On the other hand, Farmed oysters, mussels, and clams are a very sustainable choice since these creatures actually filter the water they inhabit and iwhen they are raised in pristine areas of the ocean their cultivation actually prevents the use of trawl nets.
Farmed vegetarian fish raised in closed containment systems on inland fiish farms are often an excellent choice. American Trout and Catfish are raised effectively in this way and recently some aquaculturists are beginning to farm salmon in this manner as well. But the problem with aquacultured carnivorous fish is that they are grown grown quickly and artificially on high-protein diets in the same manner as factory-farmed cows and chickens. The result is fish with such a lacklustre quality of flesh that fish factory farmers must add dyes into the fish-feed in order to pink-up the pale denuded flesh. Smaller species, like sardines and anchovies are really the best seafood options since eating them takes pressure off the longer-lived species and they are also much healthier since thier position lower on the food chain means they have accumulated less toxins in their bodies.
The most important thing to remember is that everyone can play a part in support sustainable seafood by simply diversifying their seafood-eating habits. Over-fishing of certain species tends to happen when a fish becomes so popular that the industry responds with aggressive overfishing, sometimes to the point of extinction. Two thirds of the seafood consumed in America is still eaten in restaurants so if more restaurants can simply be convinced to diversify their seafood offerings, efforts to maintain a balanced harvest will receive a tremendous boost.
