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Monday, August 11, 2008

Snapper red carded

From your fishmonger, Greenpeace has red carded a number of our most popular fish.
Popular eating fish such as snapper, hoki and tuna are in a Greenpeace guide aimed at persuading shoppers to avoid the most at-risk seafood species.

While NZ probably has one of the largest and most tightly controlled fishery areas in the world, I am surprised these latest additions made it onto their list.
New Zealanders have the power to help end the peril our oceans and fisheries are in. We are asking people to demand truly sustainable seafood from their retailer and use the guide.

Shoppers should ask retailers where and how a fish was caught and whether the shop has a policy for sourcing only truly sustainable seafood.

What next? Every fish caught to be identified from the reef to the plate?

I can see a growth bureaucracy here. NFIT. Just like the expensive, superfluous NAIT scheme for animals which will keep tag makers and RFID reader manufacturers in business for many a year to come, but is worse than useless once the animal's head has been lopped off.

And as for the commercial vs recreational argument. Reduce the commercial take.

At least one shows some sense.
You can confidently walk into any fish shop in New Zealand and know that any fish caught in New Zealand that's in the shop is absolutely fine to eat, because the fishery is sustainably managed.

Greenpeace, like I told the god-botherer with his Watch Tower magazine earlier today, stop wasting my time and go fishing somewhere else.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

All the species listed in the Greenpeace guide are at high risk of having been sourced from overfished stocks, having been caught using destructive fishing methods, or both.

You can see the actual Red List guide online at:

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/sos/red-list

If we want to continue eating fish, we need to safeguard our fisheries by putting an end to destructive fishing.

The fish listed in the Greenpeace Red List are listed because they meet the following criteria:

* the species has a life history that makes it vulnerable to overexploitation
* the species is sourced from overfished and depleted stocks, or is being fished at such high levels the stock will soon be overfished
* the fishing methods used to catch the species are highly destructive to other marine life and/or marine habitats .