Without fail, anytime I blog about more sustainable fish there will be at least one comment along the lines of ‘go vegan’ or ‘no one needs to eat fish anyway!’ That is of course fine and a viewpoint I (as a vegetarian of 25 years and counting) can certainly sympathise with.
There is usually a second set of criticisms which takes this further and suggests that Greenpeace, by promoting or lauding more sustainable fish over the stuff that is caught using destructive and wasteful methods, is promoting fish eating. That, I feel, is missing a very large point.
Basically, the people who buy and eat fish have a lot more power to change the fishing industry for the better than those of us who don’t.
Brands listen to their customers’ concerns and the thing they least want is you not buying their product or going somewhere else instead. That has been a key driver over the past few years that has resulted in supermarkets adopting fish procurement policies, removing certain species from their shelves, and has yielded so much success in our tinned tuna campaign.
But the impact doesn’t stop at the supermarkets - it is passed back up the supply chain to affect how, where and what is being fished. That of course is the crucial point. It’s the reason, for example, that so many fisheries worldwide are seeking third-party sustainable certification.
And before I get too anthropocentric, it’s not just us humans who can make a difference with our eating habits. Sea lions, penguins and cats have an impact too, leading to the somewhat embarrassing situation where the UK government’s own fish buying standards were, for a while, less stringent than what was fed to the prime minister’s cat. Oops.
The overall message here, although perhaps at first confusing, is actually quite simple. It’s about taking into account the real cost of the fish we eat, including how they have been caught and what else has been damaged or killed in the process. Just as we have been made aware that what goes on to give us cheap food or cheap clothes is not always very palatable, the same is true with fish. You get what you pay for and you might well need to pay more.
If you want to eat fish, then do it well. Eat better fish, and eat fish better. Have less of an impact. Bypass the endangered species, the stuff caught by trashing the seabed, and the stuff that comes with a whole side order of unacceptable bycatch for a start.
So if you eat fish, or want to eat fish, you can make a difference. Your opinion matters to the people who sell it, process it, catch it and make the laws that govern it.
