Sustainable Fishing: Saving Our Seas
Over the centuries, fishing methods have evolved from tridents and spears, and simple nets and rods, to more efficient methods that catch greater numbers of fish.
| Pacific Giant Octopus |
 Photograph by NOAA
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Today, the world has become too good at fishing. We have high-powered boats able to go further, faster. We have bigger nets that reach wider and deeper, catching all sorts of marine life. Sadly, much is thrown back into the ocean as bycatch, like corals, turtles, dolphins and octopuses.
Wasteful and destructive commercial fishing practices continue to reduce fish populations and alter the world's marine ecosystems.
British Columbia needs to act!
The list of troubled species is endless. British Columbia faces deep losses of wild salmon populations. B.C.'s valuable groundfish are in steep decline. Near Vancouver Island, the abundance of the rockfish bocaccio may have declined by 95 percent between 1980 and 2000. Abalone and the province's endangered white sturgeon could disappear from the coast, due in part to ongoing poaching.
You can help! Buy sustainable seafood
Please buy sustainable seafood at your grocery store or restaurant. Ask questions; tell your fishmonger you worry about ocean health and want to purchase "sustainable" fish. Retailers will take your concerns to their suppliers. The more market pressure for sustainable seafood, the more likely it is that change will occur. You have options.
| List of sustainable seafood! |
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SeaChoice: Use the guidelines set out by SeaChoice, a program operated by five environmental organizations including CPAWS. SeaChoice ranks fisheries and aquaculture operations using sustainability criteria. Based on these assessments, fisheries are rated from green (meaning good) to red (poor practices).
What sustainable seafood means: SeaChoice criteria for green, yellow and red lists
| SeaChoice Sushi ! |
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- abundant and resilient to fishing pressure;
- well-managed, based on current scientific research;
- harvested in ways that minimize habitat damage, bycatch and negative interactions with animals.
For farmed fish, SeaChoice good choices come from operations that:
- are well-managed;
- minimize the use of marine resources;
- have low risk of escapes or disease/parasite transfer to wild stocks;
- are not associated with high pollution or other negative habitat effects.
| WWF-Canada Seafood Menu |
 Visit the WWF-Canada Interactive Seafood Menu! |
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC): Support sustainable seafood by pledging to buy MSC certified seafood. Look for seafood products with the MSC ecolabel. The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent, non-profit organization set up to find a solution to the problem of overfishing. It has an environmental standard to identify sustainable fisheries and you can spot seafood that meets this standard by looking for the distinctive blue MSC label. This gives you a simple way to identify – and purchase – fish from well-managed sources.
Video: Three Tips to Steer Clear of Fisheries Collapse
Brian Halweil, a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute provides tips on how to continue enjoying the health benefits of seafood while avoiding fishery depletions and the toxins present in many fish.