Eating fish regularly is something many people take for granted. Eating fish is considered healthy and many find fish sticks, fish filets or smoked fish delicious. Fish is the right way to get all you need to stay more focused on TonyBet. However, when we look for information on the Internet about the origin of fish, our enjoyment quickly comes to an end: many species are overfished, there are repeated reports about pollutants in fish, aquacultures are not a good alternative either, and we can hardly rely on the seals. Does that mean we have to give up fish altogether? In fact, there are many good reasons to eliminate fish and other seafood from our diet.
However, if you still want to eat fish, there are at least a few things you should keep in mind. In the following you will get an overview.
EATING SUSTAINABLE
Which fish to eat? Greenpeace recommends only carp without restrictions.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), just under 35 percent of global fish stocks were overfished in 2019. Around 60 percent have already been exploited to the maximum, so more is not possible without also being overfished.
The WWF’s fish guide and the new fish guide from the consumer advice center tell you which species can still be fished sustainably in which fishing grounds. Greenpeace’s fish guide, which was considered particularly strict for a long time, has unfortunately not been reissued in recent years.
In the last published version in 2016, only carp was considered unreservedly recommendable. Today, WWF and consumer organizations see it similarly: here, too, carp from European aquaculture has a green rating.
WWF FISH GUIDE
Some types of fish you can eat, according to WWF, if they were fished in certain fishing areas (FAO) and/or with certain fishing methods. For example:
- Arctic shrimp from the Northeast Pacific off Canada (FAO 67), caught with traps.
- Tropical shrimp from Southeast Asia or Europe from aquaculture
- Halibut from Europe from aquaculture
- Herring from the Northwest Atlantic off the U.S. (FAO 21), caught with purse seines, and from the Northeast Atlantic (FAO 27), but with numerous exceptions
- Pacific salmon from the northeast Pacific off Alaska and Canada (FAO 67)
- Brown and lake trout from Austria from aquaculture
- Blue mussel worldwide, provided that the aquaculture is line culture
- Nile perch or Victoria perch from Lake Victoria in Tanzania (wild caught)
- Rainbow trout from Denmark from aquaculture
- Arctic char from Europe and Iceland from aquaculture
- Anchovy from the Northeast Atlantic in the Bay of Biscay (FAO 27) from pelagic otter trawls or purse seines
- Hake from the Northeast Pacific off Canada and USA (FAO 67), caught with pelagic otter trawls
- Saithe (coalfish) from the Northeast Atlantic off Iceland (FAO 27), caught with purse seines, gillnets or bottom longlines
- Tuna (skipjack) from the western and central Pacific Ocean (FAO 61, 71, 77, 78) or off Indonesia (FAO 57), caught with hand lines or pole lines
- Tuna (yellowfin tuna) from the eastern and southwestern Pacific Ocean (FAO 61, 71, 77, 81), caught with handlines or fishing lines
- Tuna (albacore) from the Pacific Ocean (FAO 61, 67, 71, 77, 81, 87), and from the northwest and northeast Atlantic (FAO 21, 27, 31, 34), caught by handline, pole-and-line or trolling gear
- Catfish (African and European) from aquaculture (closed recirculating systems, pond systems) in Europe
FISH YOU SHOULD NOT EAT
Rays are among the game fish that should not be eaten under any circumstances.
For the following wild fish, WWF and consumer centers agree that you should not eat them under any circumstances:
- European eel
- all shark and ray species
- orange roughy, angelfish
- Bluefin tuna
In contrast to the WWF, the consumer centers also generally advise against mussels, North Pacific, southern and Atlantic bluefin tuna, mackerel, sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, redfish and squid.
Additional guidance on which fish you can eat is provided by seals for wild fish. The best known is certainly MSC, but also some organic associations such as Naturland now have seals for wild fish.
FISH FROM AQUACULTURES
If you now believe that you can hardly eat wild fish without major concerns, but you can eat fish from aquaculture, you are unfortunately mistaken. With farmed fish from aquacultures, neither endangered stocks nor bycatch are an immediate problem. Nevertheless, aquaculture is unfortunately not the ultimate solution, as this form of farming brings its own problems:
One major problem is that the fish are often fed fishmeal made from wild fish. Thus, despite aquacultures, fish stocks are massively polluted.
Since aquacultures keep a lot of fish in a small space, the ground underneath them is covered with a particularly large amount of fish feces. In addition, the fish are often treated with antibiotics. The use of chemicals further pollutes the surrounding ecosystems. This is especially true for farms whose water is in direct exchange with seawater.
In tropical and subtropical waters, there are fish farms for which mangrove forests have to give way. These forests are the habitats of very many species and also spawning grounds for many wild fish.
When fish escape from aquacultures, they can transmit rampant diseases to wild fish there. In addition, farmed fish are often kept in places where they are not native. When they mix with native stocks, they can disrupt the delicate balance of ecosystems.
For these reasons, you should not eat fish from aquacultures without hesitation. As in the case of wild fish, seals such as the ASC and Naturland seals can also provide you with guidance
