Sourcing seafood
As consumers, we can all help to influence fisheries practices and reduce fisheries' impacts, simply by selecting the types of fish we eat.
Kent Wildlife Trust is keen to promote sustainable and local fisheries. Please help us with our Sourcing Seafood project, aimed at encouraging everyone to eat more eco-friendly fish.
What you can do
There are a number of ways you can make a difference:
- Ask about how and where fish has been caught, before making a purchase.Check it has not been caught from dwindling stocks or using harmful gear such as dredges.
- Try to vary the fish you eat, to take the pressure off the most popular types, like cod.
- Support those supermarkets which have sound fish purchasing policies (Marks & Spencer and Waitrose came out at the top in a recent review).
- Send us details of your favourite restaurant or pub where the fish they serve are from sustainable sources (ie not from dwindling stocks, not collected using harmful gear).
Further information
For information on which fish to eat and which to avoid:
- FishOnLine, http://www.fishonline.org/. See their "Purchasing Guide"
- MCS's Good Fish Guide, and a wallet-sized guide, available at Kent Wildlife Trust, or direct from MCS .
- Marine Stewardship Council (http://www.msc.org/) which certifies fisheries as sustainable with a blue tick fish logo. (Certified fisheries include the Thames herring fishery, and the Hastings fleet’s Dover sole, mackerel and herring fisheries.)
- The Good Shopping Guide website makes it easy to buy brands from the most responsible companies at the cheapest price… and boycott those corporates that don’t care about animal welfare, human rights or the environment www.gooshing.co.uk
