The future of our seas has never been more precarious. Ninety years of industrial-scale overfishing has brought us to the brink of an ecological catastrophe and deprived millions of their livelihoods. As scientific guidelines are ignored and catches become ever bigger, Alex Renton tells why the international community has failed to act.
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday May 11 2008 on p28 of the Focus section.
A tuna transport floating tank being towed from the fishing grounds off Libya to tuna ranches off Sicily, Italy. Photograph: AFP/Gavin Newman"
For those that dont know I try my hardest to eat only sustainable fish. And as Alex points out it is very hard to do so, very little labling of fish in markets as sustainable (perhaps in some places it is much easier, but certainly not where I have shopped). I have seen the product of over fishing first hand! When scuba diving in Curacao it was noticed that all the fish were small...they were certainly catching all the fish that were of "legal" size... what a shame to see.
Thank goodness that the Monteray Bay Aquarium in San Fran. has made it easier for consumers to select fish, with their Seafood Watch program. You can print out a hand dandy pocket guide to which fish are good, better and bad choices. Check it out!
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