Choosing to eat fish from sustainable sources is an important way to help our oceans. 90% of our world fish stocks are fully or over-exploited from fishing and destructive fishing practices are damaging sensitive habitats and accidently catching other marine wildlife.
Globally fish farming (also known as aquaculture) is rapidly expanding to fulfil our increasing demand, but if fish farming is done badly it can also damage the environment in which it operates.
Choosing not to eat fish is an option that some people choose to take, to reduce demand for the resource and any associated environmental impacts or other reasons. But there are ways to catch and farm fish that are environmentally responsible and many fish stocks and habitats can then recover, if they are managed sustainably and given time to recover.
By choosing seafood from the most sustainable sources, you encourage supermarkets and restaurants to demand it from their suppliers, which in turn helps support the market for seafood that is caught or farmed in the most environmentally responsible way. You are likewise reducing demand for the most unsustainable seafood. You can therefore play a key role in securing the future of our seas and marine wildlife.
Please read the below articles to see which fish stocks are the most sustainable and why, and which are not – so you can make in informed choice when choosing to buy fish.
https://iwt.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IWT-Seafood-Guide-web-1.pdf
https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search
http://www.bim.ie/media/bim/content/BIM_Seafood_Handbook.pdf
