Sustainable seafood
Encyclopedia
Sustainable seafood is seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

 from either fished or farmed sources that can maintain or increase production in the future without jeopardizing the ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

s from which it was acquired. The sustainable seafood movement has gained momentum as more people become aware about both overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....

 and environmentally-destructive fishing methods.

How seafood is deemed sustainable

In general, slow-growing fish that reproduce late in life, such as orange roughy, are quite vulnerable to overfishing. Seafood species that grow quickly and breed young, such as anchovies and sardines, are much more resistant to overfishing. Several organizations, including the Marine Stewardship Council
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...

 and Friend of the Sea
Friend of the Sea
Friend of the Sea is a project for the certification and promotion of seafood from sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture. It is the only certification scheme which, with the same logo, certifies both wild and farmed seafood. Friend of the Sea started as a project of the Earth Island...

, certify seafood fisheries as sustainable.

In the US, the Sustainable Fisheries Act defines sustainable practices
Sustainable fisheries
Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate...

 through national standards. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...

 (NOAA) has created FishWatch to help guide concerned consumers to sustainable seafood choices.
The NOAA Fisheries’ position is that the "ten National Standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, backed up by the principles of other applicable law such as the Endangered Species Act
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...

 and Marine Mammal Act, function as the US fisheries sustainability standards".

Nonprofit groups addressing seafood sustainability include the Marine Stewardship Council
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...

, Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey Bay Aquarium
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located on the former site of a sardine cannery on Cannery Row of the Pacific Ocean shoreline in Monterey, California. It has an annual attendance of 1.8 million visitors. It holds thousands of plants and animals, representing 623 separate named species on display...

, Oceana
Oceana (non-profit group)
Oceana is the largest international ocean conservation and advocacy organization. Oceana works to protect and restore the world’s oceans through targeted policy campaigns....

, John G. Shedd Aquarium and Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

. Many of these groups produce consumer guides for sustainable seafood. The Marine Stewardship Council has also implemented a "Fish Forever" label on ocean-friendly seafood in markets.

In March 2009, the tuna industry, scientists and WWF, the global conservation organization, announced a global partnership and formed the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). The group's website says its mission is to work toward the science-based management and conservation of tuna stocks and the protection of ocean health.

Chefs and restaurants

Due to growing public concern about overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....

, many seafood restaurants have begun to offer more sustainable seafood options, with some restaurants specializing in sustainable seafood. The Seafood Choices Alliance
Seafood Choices Alliance
The Seafood Choices Alliance is a program of the nonprofit ocean conservation organization, SeaWeb. It was established in 2001 to bring together the disparate elements and diverse approaches in a growing "seafood choices" movement in the United States and expanded into Europe in 2005...

 aims to educate chefs about the choices they make in order to encourage more chefs and restaurants to offer sustainable options.

Advisory lists


See also

  • Environmental Defense Fund
  • Friend of the Sea
  • List of seafoods
  • Marine Stewardship Council
    Marine Stewardship Council
    The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...

  • One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish
    One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish
    One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook is a collection of seafood recipes specifically chosen for their environmental sustainability. It was written by Carole C. Baldwin and Julie H...

    (book)
  • Sea Fish Industry Authority
    Sea Fish Industry Authority
    The Sea Fish Industry Authority is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body, established in 1981, and charged with working with the UK seafood industry to promote good quality, sustainable seafood. Seafish revised its mission in 2008...

  • Seafood Choices Alliance
    Seafood Choices Alliance
    The Seafood Choices Alliance is a program of the nonprofit ocean conservation organization, SeaWeb. It was established in 2001 to bring together the disparate elements and diverse approaches in a growing "seafood choices" movement in the United States and expanded into Europe in 2005...

  • Seafood Watch
    Seafood Watch
    Seafood Watch is one of the best known sustainable seafood advisory lists, and has influenced similar programs around the world. It is a program designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources...


Further reading

  • Jacquet, J. and D. Pauly
    Daniel Pauly
    Daniel Pauly is a French-born marine biologist, well-known for his work in studying human impacts on global fisheries. He is a professor and the project leader of the Sea Around Us Project at the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. He also served as Director of the Fisheries...

     (2008) "Trade secrets: renaming and mislabeling of seafood" Marine Policy 32: 309-318.
  • Jacquet, J. and D. Pauly
    Daniel Pauly
    Daniel Pauly is a French-born marine biologist, well-known for his work in studying human impacts on global fisheries. He is a professor and the project leader of the Sea Around Us Project at the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. He also served as Director of the Fisheries...

    (2007) "The rise of consumer awareness campaigns in an era of collapsing fisheries" Marine Policy 31: 308-313.

External links



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