15:38 25 March 2010 byNic FlemingFor similar stories, visit theFood and DrinkTopic Guide Fish-lovers may soon be able to buy guilt-free farmed seafood, thanks to a new league table that ranks the sustainability of the fisheries used to make feed for aquaculture.
The league table will help farms make sure the feed they use does not harm wild fish stocks and could allow them to qualify for schemes certifying that their produce is sustainable.
There are several certification schemes to help consumers choose sustainable wild-caught fish, such as the one operated by the Marine Stewardship Council, a global not-for-profit organisation. International collaborations are trying to offer similar certification for farmed fish.
But with farmed fish there is the challenge of defining whether the feeds used in aquaculture come from sustainable sources. Farmed fish are fed oils and meal made from other fish: close to a third of the catch from the world’s fisheries is used for non-food products, with the majority being converted into fishmeal and fish oil.
Drastic decline This has led to some drastic declines in wild fish populations, and salmon and shrimp farms have faced growing criticism in recent years over the impact fish feed has on local ecosystems.
The fish used for such purposes are typically small, short-lived, mid-water species that are found in large shoals and that come fairly low down in the food chain. Examples include anchovy, herring, pilchard, sprat and sardine.
League table Now the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco, has published a sustainability league table for the 22 fish stocks most harvested for fish oil and fishmeal.
Their report, FishSource, Reduction Fisheries and Aquaculture, gives fisheries marks out of 10 in five key areas: whether there is a mechanism to reduce catches if stocks decline, whether fishery managers follow scientific advice, whether fleets comply with specified limits on their catch, whether stock levels are healthy now and whether they are likely to be healthy in future.
Fisheries scoring 6 or higher in all areas
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