One Fish, Two Fish, Cod Fish, Tuna Fish

Pacific Salmon is OK, but Wild Atlantic Salmon is over-fished. Pacific Cod is OK, Atlantic Cod is nearly depleted. Albacore Tuna from the South Pacific is OK, but Albacore Tuna from the Atlantic is unsustainable. Bluefin and Bigeye Tuna are not OK anywhere. Yikes! I like fish. I want to eat fish. But which fish?

I saw Alaskan Cod fish sticks in Switzerland. Is it better to eat that fish that was frozen and traveled thousands of miles, but has healthy stocks, or the over-fished Atlantic Cod from the English Channel that only traveled 500 miles? I'm not sure.

So, what to do?

Mix it up. Stop with the old fish, and try a new fish. A species that isn't as well known like Alaskan Pollack for example. It's a member of the cod family but highly reproductive and a fish whose stocks are healthy. Avoid popular fishes like Wild Atlantic Salmon which is severely depleted due to overfishing and Bigeye and Bluefin Tuna which have been fished to near extinction.

Eat with the seasons. Pacific Cod has healthy stocks, but avoid it from January to April, when it spawns. That way they have a chance to breed and replenish themselves.

What about farmed fish?

The greatest problem with farmed fish (carnivorous, like salmon and prawns) is that they require lots of fish-feed. Often this fish-feed is vegetable-based (soy). I don't think you need to be a marine biologist to know that fish don't normally eat vegetables. Not to mention the fact that we are growing soy to feed fish. Lots of fish-feed equals lots of fish poop. Concentrated amounts of fish poop are then ingested by the farmed fish and in turn us. If it's an open farm in a natural setting the poop is polluting the farm and the surrounding marine life that's not living in the farm. Organic fish farms tend to lower their impact on the environment by lower stocks and limiting fertilizers and artificial coloring. Farmed oysters have very low impact and often improve local ecosystems. Many mollusks don't require feed, but they slow water flow, causing sediment to build up around the farm.

Farmed fish reminds me of feedlot meat. Most farmed fish, like feedlots, are awful for the environment. Now beef eat corn over grass, and fish eat soy over other fish and plankton. And what are we left with? Huge piles of poop. Farmed fish may make economic sense but at what cost to our health and the environment?

A few wild-caught fish with healthy stocks are: Coley or Coalfish, Dab, North Sea Haddock, Atlantic Hake, Norwegian Herring, Hoki, John Dory, Alaskan and North East Atlantic Pollack, North East Atlantic Red Mullet, North Pacific Salmon, North East Atlantic Sardine, Black Seabream, Celtic Sea Dover Sole, Tilapia, and Skipjack Tuna.

Comments

[mycookinghut]

I love fish too!! I bought a sea bream yesterday from Borough market and it's really fresh!!!

[Gastroanthropologist]

my cooking hut - I hope you post on it! I haven't had sea bream in a while...and you've reminded me that its been a few weeks since I've been down to Borough - I must go next week!