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Fish for Dinner? We’re Going to Need a Smaller Boat

The world loves to eat fish. For health reasons, and in order to feed growing populations, Europe, Asia, and the United States are consuming fish at record levels. Sadly, regulations on fishing and fish farming are lax in most countries. The fishing industry wants to cash in on our taste for fish; unfortunately, pollution, overfishing, and harm to endangered species are the unintended consequences of the race to bring ever more product to market. A 2006 study by an international group of scientists found that all saltwater fish and seafood populations will disappear by 2048 if current fishing practices continue. A food source that humans have depended upon for thousands of years may be gone within a few generations. But the loss wouldn’t simply affect our food supply; sea creatures filter toxins from the ocean, protect shorelines, and help control destructive algae blooms.

Fortunately, there are solutions on the table, and some have been put into practice with great success.

ECO-FRIENDLY FISHING PRACTICES

Below are some of the effective and imaginative approaches to help us harvest fish with an eye toward the long term. The question now is how to implement these tactics worldwide before all of our wild fish populations are destroyed.

Curbing Bycatch

Bycatch are the unwanted fish and sea life, including birds and sea turtles, that are trapped and killed in industrial fishing nets by the thousands. In recent years, improved fishing gear has begun to reduce the problem by letting nontarget animals escape. There are trap doors for turtles, and electronic beepers or “pingers” that warn mammals like whales to stay away from nets. Catching the shrimp in traps instead of nets lets fishermen release 98 percent of unwanted catch, which is why you’ll find “trap-caught” shrimp given a high eco-friendly seafood rating.

Marine Parks

These are the underwater equivalent of national parks, providing a sanctuary where fish are insulated from harmful fishing practices, pollution, and deadly underwater noise from sonar, air guns, and shipping. According to the NRDC, marine parks situated off the coasts of California and Hawaii have an average of twice as many fish as unprotected areas.

Catch Shares

In this arrangement, now successfully being used in Alaska, on the West Coast, and in New England, fisheries are guaranteed a percentage of the overall catch and are rewarded financially for leaving breeding fish to spawn the following season. This helps to preserve healthy oceans, the source of their income. This approach is fundamentally different from the traditional quota system known as “race-to-fish,” where fisheries have a limited number of days to catch as much fish as possible.

CHOOSE FISH RESPONSIBLY

We can steer the fishing industry toward responsible practices by buying seafood caught and raised according to these guidelines. When you eat fish, choose those that are farmed or caught sustainably. There are many online lists of the best and worst fish to eat from an ecological perspective. Two sources I consult are the Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide (find their websites in the Resources section). Both provide lists that grade fish on how responsibly they are caught or farmed. They have information on where and how each type of fish is brought to market, as well as recipes to help with preparing unfamiliar types.

Some of my favorite choices from the recommended seafood list include white anchovies, sablefish (also known as black cod or butterfish) caught in Alaska or British Columbia, and wreckfish, a tasty basslike fish caught in the Atlantic Ocean.

Try cooking with new kinds of fish that have a high eco-friendly rating, or if you’re at a restaurant and see a fish on the menu that you don’t recognize, ask the waiter for a description and try ordering it. The idea is to get