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Choose responsibly and sustainably farmed fish, that is, species that have been raised on a low-protein diet with consideration of the environmental impact of fish farms on water quality, ecosystems, habitats, and biodiversity.

Find it! Responsibly and sustainably farmed fish

Below you'll find a variety of seafood providers, all of which offer some sustainable fish and seafood. However, be aware that many companies sell both eco-friendly and non-sustainably harvested products, so you'll want to verify your purchase before fishing out your cash.

How to choose responsibly farmed fish

1. Choose species that have been raised on a low-protein diet. Some species, such as tilapia, eat significantly less protein than others, making them more sustainable to raise. Find information on farm practices by fish type with the Environmental Defense Fund's Seafood Selector or the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guide.
2. Avoid carnivorous farmed species such as salmon and tuna. They require smaller wild fish to be caught for food, which is often caught with trawlers or drift nets. This, in turn, reduces the food supply and biodiversity in wild ecosystems, and increases pressure on fishmeal species. Finally, because of a diet rich in fatty, smaller fish, these carnivorous farmed fish may have increased toxin levels.[1]
3. When purchasing at retailers, markets, and restaurants, ask where the seafood comes from and how it is raised.
4. When cooking for yourself, a good resource is the Chef's Collaborative booklet, Seafood Solutions: A Chef's Guide to Ecologically Responsible Fish Procurement, which offers advice on sustainable choices. Was the farmed fish raised on a low-protein diet? Was it raised in polluting net pens? Was it given antibiotics?
5. Look for labels indicating certification or reliable standards, keeping in mind that some standards are more stringent than others. The FishWise program, the Global Aquaculture Alliance's Responsible Aquaculture Program, the Aquaculture Certification Council, and EurepGAP's Integrated Aquaculture Assurance Standard offer varying levels of traceability, sustainability, and eco-friendly seafood farming practices.

Choosing responsibly-farmed fish helps you go green because...

• Wild fish populations will not suffer as a result of food shortages due to the harvest of food for carnivorous farmed fish.
• Where the fish is farmed, local water quality and habitat will benefit from ecologically-friendly practices.
• Choosing fish raised on low-protein diets helps ensure healthy, wild ecosystems.

To address the growing worldwide appetite for seafood, aquaculture now accounts for nearly half of the world’s total supply of food.[2] While it can possibly become a sustainable practice to supplement capture fisheries and contribute to feeding a growing population, unsustainable aquaculture development may enhance existing problems and create new ones.[3] Farmed fish can affect local water quality, decrease biodiversity (wild populations are often out-competed by escaped farmed fish), transmit diseases to wild populations, and alter natural habitats. Carnivorous farmed fish such as salmon, cod, tuna, and sea bass put pressure on wild populations of small ocean fish, which then makes it more difficult for wild fish populations to find food.[4] Carnivorous farmed fish may also have higher levels of mercury, PCBs, PBDEs, and chlorinated dioxins because of diets rich in fatty, smaller fish.[1][5]

Five of the 10 most popular types of seafood in the United States are farmed, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program, which evaluates farmed fish. Farms that use closed recirculating systems and enclosed ponds, for example, are designated as "good" and "best" in terms of environmentally sustainable methods, while seafood designated as "avoid" are more often raised in open net pens from which fish and waste can escape into the wild.[6] Aquaculture practices can be sustainable within their ecosystem by respecting wild fish populations and their habitats, preventing contamination of wild populations, avoiding use of polluting holding pens and antibiotics, and taking action on water quality issues.

Glossary

• aquaculture, mariculture, or fish farming: The practice of farming seafood for human consumption.
• polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE): A fire-retardant linked to brain and reproductive system disorders.[7]
• polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): Chemicals that are highly-toxic, persistent organic pollutants that contaminate waterways and accumulate in fish populations, working their way into the human food chain.
• trawlers: Commercial fishing vessels that drag large nets along the ocean floor to harvest bottom-dwelling species like shrimp, flounder, cod, and rockfishes. This practice destroys the ocean floor habitat and irreparably damages sedentary sea life such as corals, clearing miles in a single pass and creating a dead zone that may take centuries to rejuvenate.[8]

External links

• Nature - Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies
• Seafood Choices Alliance
• SeaWeb
• Food and Water Watch - Fish Farming