Hook, lies and sushi
Seafood is the most traded commodity in the world. Over a billion people on the planet are reliant on these resources for their protein and livelihoods. This said, the overexploitation of fish stocks is a major problem. Many fish species, particularly those which are on the top of the food chain, are under serious threat of extinction.
Today, we are eating around 25% more fish than we did 20 years ago, and the fishing industry has seen a 70% growth as a result. But with this insatiable demand, comes additional stress on already over-burdened wild fish stocks.
In the past decade, omega-3 has become the big buzz word among health professionals. Sushi became supremely chic, but how has this affected global fish stocks, and are those little rice rolls all that good for us or the environment?
How the fishing industry has developed
Gone are the days where salty sea dogs rowed their boats out to catch enough fish to stock the local fishmonger. Modern day fishing technologies have enabled us to find, catch, and kill anything that swims or scuttles. Radars, echo locators, electronic navigation systems, and satellite-based GPS allow for more effective and efficient catches than ever before.
Humanity's demand for seafood has now driven fishing fleets into every virgin fishing ground in the world. A report by the World Bank and United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) suggests that even if the number of boats, hooks and nets now used were cut by half, the world would still end up catching too many fish to be sustainable for the future. According to the FAO, the world harvest in 2005 consisted of 93.3 million tonnes captured by commercial fishing in wild fisheries; 60 years ago this figure fell below 20 million tonnes per annum.
International fishing producers and consumers
Over the past few decades, there has been a shift in the top global producers and consumers of fish products. Some of the countries that previously held the top spots have slipped down, making room for China, and her seafood-craving people.
According to a number of international studies and reports, the top 10 producing countries are: the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), Peru, the United States, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, India, Russia, Thailand, and Norway. Those countries accounted for more than half of the world's production, with China alone accounting for a third of the world's production. China also consumes the most seafood, gobbling up almost 14 million tonnes of it a year. The consumption rate of Japan is one and a half times less than that of China, but still chocks up a grand total of some nine million tonnes a year. The U.S.A takes the bronze medal.
Clash of the Titans
Japan is one of the world's largest fishery producers, with a total annual output of around five million tonnes. The total amount of seafood eaten per capita amounted to 26kg in the US and a jaw-dropping 106kg in Japan. With less than 2% of the world's population, Japan now consumes more than 8% of the global landings of all seafood.
Overfishing
Over the last 60 years, there has been a vast increase in the amount of fish being taken out of the oceans. A quarter of the world's fisheries are classified as either over-fished or depleted, and another half of the remaining global fisheries are being fished as hard as they can be. Fisheries and conservation scientists predict the total collapse of all fished species in less than 50 years. Put into perspective, for every 10 tuna, sharks, and other large predatory fish that were in our oceans 50-100 years ago, only one remains today. Second only to climate change, overfishing is our biggest sustainability challenge. On a daily basis, we remove tonnes of life from beneath the waves, often in shockingly inefficient and destructive ways. Bottom trawlers with giant nets rake the ocean floor, decimating coral reefs and flattening any animals that lack the ability to move out of the way.
Why is this happening?
International regulations and quotas have not been able to align with the unsustainable and limited resource supply, and the seemingly unlimited demand. The world's oceans are being emptied to stock international fish markets, like Tsukiji in Japan, the world's largest. Among the species that have been particularly endangered by overfishing are most kinds of tuna, the family of groupers, and sea breams. During the past two decades, the pressure on bluefins has also multiplied because of the increasing popularity of sushi in North America, Europe and Australia. Largely worthless around the globe a generation ago, it is now one of the world's most lucrative commodities.
Bluefins
The bluefin tuna is the largest of the commercially-caught tuna species, and the highest valued in the market. Bluefin was not exploited in the western Atlantic until the early 1900s and, until the late 1950s, there was no commercial market for them. Today, an estimated 27 million longline hooks are deployed every day, an unsustainable practice which has reduced bluefin tuna stocks to as low as 5% of their natural levels.
How has the "sushi effect" impacted on national eating habits around the world?
Today, global sushi consumption is 40% greater than it was in the late 1990s. World statistics show a number of interesting trends. Sushi consumption in France has risen approximately 30% every year for the past few years. In Russia, up to 80% of Norwegian salmon goes directly to sushi restaurants. London now has more than 300 Japanese restaurants and the British market for Japanese food is worth more than £500 million a year. In 2007, Americans picked up chopsticks and dipped over 2.5 million sushi meals into bowls of soy sauce and wasabi.
But is sushi all that good for you?
With more and more people subscribing to the mantra "you are what you eat", some are opting for healthy food options, with the added benefits of the omega essential fatty acids. Cue sushi, stage left. But with the recent drive towards increasing our intake of fresh fish, comes the possibility of potential exposure to heavy metal contamination.
It has been proven that mercury levels in fish like tuna are much higher than in fish lower down the food chain. This is due, in part, to the fact that tuna gobble down so many of the smaller fish, that they act as reservoirs for the mercury to collect in. Scientists around the world are warning against mass consumption of fish, with some going as far as to say that no one should eat a meal of tuna more than about once every three weeks. But don't be shocked into laying down your chop sticks for good, fish is still a very healthy option if eaten, like all meats, in moderation.
Solutions to the problem
Given our penchant for chic sushi, it is very much debatable that we will all retire our chopsticks and give up the little rice-rolled wonders. So, if you are already planning on your next sushi platter, consider some green options, and make your meal a little more sustainable. We should only really feel guilty when eating dessert anyway.
Eco-labeling
One of the best ways to ensure that the fish you're eating is sustainable, is by looking for, or asking about, the certification that comes with the catch. There are a number of eco-labelling organisations, the leading one being the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Look for the blue MSC eco-label when shopping or dining out. When consumers see the eco-label, they have third party assurance and verification that by choosing that product, they are not contributing to the environmental and social problems of overfishing. This is because no product in the marketplace can carry the eco-label unless every step in the supply chain has been independently verified on an annual audit, to make sure that they are separating certified fish from non-certified fish. A downside to certification is that the cost of signing up to these programs often comes with a hefty price tag. But research shows that most people are prepared to pay a bit extra, knowing that their meal comes from a sustainable source.
Aquaculture
With wild fish stocks collapsing, why not replicate our land-based farming activities, and apply this to the marine world? Fish farming has, in fact, been around for thousands of years, with records dating back to ancient civilisations. Although farming fish seems like a far more sustainable manner in obtaining our fish stocks, it is also fraught with complications. The major problem is polluting the surrounding marine ecosystem with fish waste, excess feed, and chemicals. These chemicals are also known to be potentially dangerous to humans.
From an ecological standpoint, the dredging and drilling involved in creating and maintaining giant offshore fish farms can cause serious damage to the substrate, water and wildlife around them. Cultured animals can look or behave differently than those found in the wild, due to their captive conditions, and they may not have the innate ability to feed, reproduce, and survive in the wild. Intentionally adding cultured animals to native populations can, over time, change the behaviour and genetic composition of natural stocks, completely changing the natural roles and relationships within the ecosystem.
SOS - save our seas
The demand for sushi is not going to lessen, and pundits for environmental doom and gloom are painting a very morbid picture for the remaining tuna stocks. So, we ask ourselves, can we be an ethical diner and still eat fish? We cannot possibly know where each and every fillet comes from, but what we can do is use our voice, and vote to urge governments to face the fact that global fish stocks are collapsing due to mismanagement and illegal fishing operations.
