In simple terms, a sustainable fishery is one whose practices can be maintained indefinitely without reducing the targeted species’ ability to maintain its population at healthy levels, and without adversely impacting on other species within the...

A good sustainable seafood procurement policy should contain a detailed definition of ‘sustainable’ for both wild-caught and farmed seafood. It should list the principles of how sustainable seafood is identified and purchased, and outline how...

In many countries, seafood labelling is poor, making it impossible for customers to trace where the fish they buy comes from, and what method was used to catch it. Sometimes, it is even difficult to tell which species is present in the product or...

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Greenpeace is currently working with retailers to motivate them to develop and implement policies for sourcing sustainable seafood.

Pots, traps or ‘creels’ include a variety of designs that take the form of cages or baskets with one or more openings or entrances, with or without bait. They are usually set on the seabed, either singly or in rows, and are connected by ropes...

Hook-and-line is a general term used for a range of fishing methods that employ short fishing lines with hooks in one form or another (as opposed to long-lines). It includes hand-lines, hand-reels, powered reels, rod/pole-and-line, drop lines,...

Long-lines consist of short lines (called snoods) carrying baited hooks, attached at regular intervals to a longer main line that is laid on the bottom or suspended horizontally with the help of surface floats. Main lines can be over 150 km long...

Long-lines consist of short lines (called snoods) carrying hooks, attached at regular intervals to a longer main line that is laid on, or close to, the seabed. Main lines are up to 150 km long and can carry several thousand hooks.

Pelagic gillnets or ‘set nets’ are fine-filament nets that are kept at or below the surface by numerous floats and weights and held in position by anchors. If a fish’s head goes through the net but its body can’t follow, it is ‘gilled’ or...

Bottom gillnets or ‘set nets’ are fine-filament nets, the lower edge of which touch the seabed, and are held in place by numerous floats, weights and anchors. If a fish’s head goes through the net but its body can’t follow, it is ‘gilled’ or...

Fish are encircled by a large ‘wall’ of net, which is then brought together to retain the fish by using a line at the bottom that enables the net to be closed like a purse.