Background - 20 March, 2014
We want healthy oceans for our children’s future. We want a healthy fishing industry for the same reason – to keep bringing jobs and security for the next generations.
If we want to keep fishing then we have to start fishing better – we have to stop the destructive, wasteful and overfishing practices. Making the right choices about what fish we buy can help change how fish is caught. This toolkit can help you ask the questions and give the answers in your local community to make fishing better.
It can be hard to imagine the scale of some fishing operations or even how some fish is caught.
On this page you can read up on different catching methods, rearing techniques of fish farms and watch a cool video on the most sustainable way to catch tuna. Please use this information when asking your retailers and restaurants where and how their fish was caught. Ask questions, be informed, use your knowledge and your money to change the market and make fishing better. If they can’t answer your questions, don’t buy their fish.
Fish rearing systems
Fish farming – or aquaculture as it is formally known – is often thought to be the best alternative to fish caught at sea – but it is not as simple as that. Click here to find out about different types of farmed fish.
Tuna ranching – taking young fish from the wild and rearing them in huge ocean cages – is also creating serious problems especially in the Mediterranean. Click here to read a short report on tuna ranching and other threats in the region.
Fishing techniques
There are many different types of fishing methods. Some depend on the type of fish being caught, some are used more in specific areas. Click here to read up on the most common methods and their impacts.
Support good practice
Fishing is a business like any other – it is profit driven. If fishers and traders can see that consumers want specific things they will invest in them – we consumers are a powerful force. Watch this video and read the story of the fishermen of the Maldives. You’ll be amazed by their skills. Share it with your friends and tell your shops and restaurants that you want them to only stock sustainably caught fish.
