It’s no secret that the oceans are being emptied of their wildlife. The seafood industry continues to reach new lows in terms of sustainability and environmentalism. But don’t pin the blame on the fishermen the responsibility lies heavily in the hands of the consumers.
A scientific paper published in Science in November 2006 forecast oceanic apocalypse in the year 2048: a complete collapse of commercially-fished (and therefore human-consumed) wildlife. The same article found that a full third of all global fishing stocks are already depleted to a point of 10 percent of their maximum observed abundance.
Demand for extravagant delicacies like shark fin soup has depleted the populations of most of the planet’s oceanic megafauna tiger sharks, blacktip sharks, and hammerheads, for example, have seen their numbers plummet by over 90 percent since 1972.
What can you do? Easy. Make careful choices when buying or ordering seafood.
First of all, choose the smaller animals. Seafood like oysters, clams, sardines, and anchovies are more abundant than the bigger fish because they are lower on the food chain. They also have less fat and are likely to contain fewer toxins than the fish species with longer lifespans. Eat less of the bigger fish, like salmon, tuna, and shark.
Choose seafood that has been fished responsibly or farmed safely. Trawling tears up huge landscapes of rich seabed ecosystem. Choose fish that has been caught on a line or net instead. Although this kind of fishing has its waste as well: for every kilogram of shrimp caught by shrimping boats in the Gulf Coast, an average of four kilograms of bycatch is discarded, according to an article USA Today.
As much as possible, replace seafood with non-animal options. Flax, walnuts, cereals, and some fruits, like kiwis, for example, are an alternative source for the omega fatty acids so highly valued in seafood.
