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How can shoppers make sense of sustainable fish labels?


Why do we need sustainable fish labels?

Overfishing is the greatest single threat to marine life, and at least a third of the world’s key populations of fish species are currently overexploited while most of the remainder are reaching their limits. Meanwhile, climate chaos and the scourge of plastic are only adding to the oceans’ problems.

Four out of five people agree we should only eat fish that has come from sustainable sources. There is no reliable estimate for how much of the fish sold in the UK is from sustainable sources, but evidence suggests it may be a minority of the seafood we eat.

How can we avoid contributing to overfishing?

For shoppers looking to eat ethically, judging what fish meets that bill can be tricky, with a plethora of guidelines, coalitions and voluntary codes of practice, and labels that refer to sustainable farming or line-caught methods in place of standard nets.

“Don’t be taken in by generic claims about fish being ‘responsible’ or ‘sustainable’,” advises Ruth Westcott, the campaign co-ordinator at the NGO Sustainable Fish Cities. “Look for those on the Marine Conservation Society fish to eat list, or that carry a Marine Stewardship Council, or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), or the organic symbol.”

What are the MCS and MSC labels?

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) publishes a regularly updated Good Fish Guide that lists edible fish species using a traffic light and 1 to 5 five numbering system, where a red (5) means avoid altogether and green (1 to 2) means stocks are sustainable, while amber (3 and 4) indicates potential problems: 3 for stocks that are passable but require improvement, and 4 meaning seek alternatives.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) awards fisheries sustainable status, represented by a blue tick logo on the label, based on an examination of their stocks, the fishing practices employed and the traceability of the wild fish. To gain certification, fisheries must submit to (and pay for) an independent audit. About a third of all UK sales of seafood through retailers bear the MSC blue tick, representing about £1bn a year in the shops.

Is it the best system?

Some experts say that rating species and fisheries as the MCS does can be too generic, as the rating covers a whole area but within that region some vessels may be operating in a much more sustainable manner than others, for instance by avoiding damaging methods such as trawling. For the UK, there is also often a lack of key data, giving some species an automatic low score.

The MSC rating system has its problems too – for instance, consumers were told in 2017 that cod from the North Sea (which accounts for only a small amount of the cod sold in the UK but has a high status with consumers) was once again sustainable. Hopes for cod recovery were then quickly dashed when stocks were found this summer to have plummeted, taking the fish firmly off the sustainable menu.

There have also been complaints about certified fisheries subsequently breaching the rules, so they need to be continuously monitored.

Do supermarkets and restaurants use these labels?

Many offer wild fish with the blue tick or responsibly farmed fish with the ASC or organic symbol (and the Guardian aims to only publish recipes for fish rated 1-2 by the MCS). Most of the UK’s big retailers are signed up to the Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC) which issues voluntary codes of conduct, championed by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and overseen by the NGO Client Earth.

However, take care: the SSC codes allow some latitude. The BRC says: “There is a difference in requirements for what ‘responsibly’ and ‘sustainably’ caught and sourced means in practice and this is detailed in the SSC labelling code. Most BRC members make claims that all their seafood is ‘responsibly sourced’, not ‘responsibly caught’. This is because some of the source fisheries are not yet responsibly managed (so the ‘catching’ is not itself responsible), but the ‘sourcing’ described in the claim relates to the behaviour of the retailer itself.”

Shoppers and diners need to read the small print, and not be afraid to question staff on fish counters and in restaurants. Dedicated fishmongers and stalls should be able to tell you where and when their fish was landed, and new services are springing up to cater for the ethical fish buyer: for example, SoleShare, in London, offers the fish equivalent of a vegetable box, delivered each week, offering whatever has come from its network of small boats which use sustainable fishing practices.

Why do we even need rating systems?

Fishing in European waters is regulated under the EU’s common fisheries policy, by which quotas are in theory allocated within the limits of what each population of any species can bear. Ethical consumers cannot rely on that, however, as scientific advice on yields is routinely flouted in EU quota allocation. Ministers have pledged that the UK will follow sustainable guidelines for fish catches after Brexit, but the current quota system is likely to stay in place in the short term.

Even when fish are caught in areas where stocks are sustainable, damaging practices are still legal. Clarus Chu, the seafood policy manager at WWF, which publishes its own guide for consumers, says: “If not properly managed, some commercial fishing methods, such as gillnets and trawling, can have devastating effects on marine life. They often catch more than just fish, and may trap dolphins, sharks, turtles and whales as bycatch.”

Remembering all these rules is hard – is there an easier way?

Experts agree that by sticking to the big five most popular fish in the UK: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns, we are putting unbearable and unnecessary pressure on those key species. Trying different types of fish and shellfish is easier than many people think – pollock, hake or coley make good white fish substitutes for cod and haddock, while oily fish such as sardines, mackerel and herring deliver greater health benefits in the form of vital omega-3 oils and are easy to cook. But even while seeking out lesser-seen fish, remember that advice can vary – mackerel from the north-east Atlantic, for instance, had its blue tick withdrawn earlier this year.

Can this labelling confusion be resolved?

Sue Davies, the strategic policy adviser at Which?, says shoppers deserve simplified rules, and the government should step in. “It’s still much harder than it should be for people to check whether the fish they are buying in supermarkets or when eating out has been sourced sustainably,” she says. “Our investigations have found that labels can be confusing and food company policies can vary. The government is working on a national food strategy and an important part of that should be driving more sustainable practices and ensuring there is clearer advice about how to make healthy and sustainable choices.”

With a large proportion of the fish sold in the UK lacking sustainable certification, the problem for consumers may only be solved if fish from unsustainable sources are removed from the shelves altogether.

Westcott adds that ministers could take action now if they wanted: “The government needs to help UK fish stocks and fisheries by introducing a legally binding requirement to fish sustainably, providing full fish stock assessments and reallocating quota to reward sustainable fishing. None of these actions are contingent on Brexit or our relationship with the EU.”



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