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How did these fish end up on the Red List?

These fish are on the Greenpeace International Seafood Red List because they have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries or unsustainable aquaculture operations. The table below provides a simple overview of the key problems with the fisheries that catch these species 1.

  CATCHES VULNERABLE SPECIES USES DESTRUCTIVE FISHING METHODS OVERFISHING USES UNSELECTIVE FISHING METHODS PIRATE FISHING

CATCHES VULNERABLE SPECIES
Fisheries exploit species that are highly vulnerable to fishing pressure with no evidence that stocks can be maintained at a health level and/or unintentionally catches and kills other endangered species like turtles, sharks or dolphins.

DESTRUCTIVE FISHING METHODS
Fisheries use methods that damage the seabed or impact on sensitive habitats.

OVERFISHING
Many stocks are overfished and/or management of the stocks is leading to their decline

UNSELECTIVE FISHING METHODS
Fisheries use methods that capture high amounts of fish that are thrown back into the sea dead or dying or it catches high amounts of immature fish.

PIRATE FISHING
In fisheries for this species pirate fishing (illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing) is a major problem. 2

Anglerfish or monkfish or goosefish          
Atlantic cod

          
Atlantic halibut

          
Atlantic salmon

          
Common sole

          
Eel

          
European plaice

          
Greenland halibut

          
Haddock

          
Hake

          
Hoki or blue hake or blue grenadier
          
Marlin

          
Orange roughy or deep sea perch
          
Patagonian toothfish or Chilean seabass          
Red fish or rockfish

          
Sharks

          
Skates and rays

          
Swordfish

          
Tropical shrimp/prawn

          
Tuna - main market species
         

Notes:

(1) Please check the species page in the Red List for more information about aquaculture issues.

(2) Any fishery that operates in areas, or target species, for which no conservation and management measures exist are graded red. In regions where management exists, but IUU fishing is known to be a major problem, Greenpeace does not red-grade all fisheries in the area, but highlights the issue so that more care is taken when sourcing fish to prevent the trade of fish caught by owners and/or operators of vessels engaging in IUU. Please visit the pirate fishing pages and the Greenpeace 'red-grade' criteria for unsustainable fisheries for more details.

View the Red List