Fish that You Should Not Eat!

Greenpeace is playing an important role in getting a message across to supermarkets by making them aware of what is going on in our ocean's ecosystem from destructive fishing methods. Supermarkets can play an important role in all of this by limiting the type of fish they carry in their stores. Greenpeace is asking supermarkets to remove the most endangered fish products which are identified on their "red list". The "red list" of fish are those that are either caught illegally, or with destructive fishing methods or contribute to high levels of "by catch" which is when other fish species including birds and mammals are accidently killed.

Greenpeace is also encouraging supermarkets to label all their seafood with the country of origin, whether the seafood is wild caught or farmed raised and the technique that was used to catch the seafood.

According to Greenpeace in the past fifty years, ninety per cent of the top fish predators have been lost. Experts are predicting that if this trend continues global fisheries could collapse over the next fifty years.

Overfishing and destructive methods is our biggest concern for maintaining our oceans' ecosystem survival.
According to Greenpeace, the way the "red list" is made up is that it falls into these following categories:

1. Fishery exploiting endangered, vulnerable and/or protected species, and species with poor stock status.
2. Fishery causing habitat destruction and/or leads to ecosystem alterations.
3. Fishery having a negative impact on other non-target species.
4. Fishery that is unregulated, unreported, illegal or managed poorly
5. Fishery having negative impact on local, fishing dependent communities.

Here is the "red list" of seafood that is being targeted;

Alaska Pollock- this is also found in that imitation crab or lobster you see in your seafood section

Hoki which is also known as Blue Grenadier

Atlantic Cod or Scrod

Monkfish

Atlantic Halibut from the U.S and Cananda

Ocean Quahog

Atlantic Salmon (wild and farmed)- you see this commonly sold at places like SAMS, Costco and BJs.

Orange Roughy

Red Snapper

Atlantic Sea Scallop

Redfish which is also known as perch

Bluefin Tuna- sorry sushi lovers

Sharks

Big Eye Tuna

Skates and Rays

Chilean Sea Bass which is also sold as Patagonia Toothfish

South Atlantic Albacore Tuna

Swordfish

Greenland Halibut also sold as Black Halibut, Atlantic Turbo, or Arrowhead flounder

Grouper that is imported to the United States

Tropical Shrimp which is either in the wild or farmed.

Yellowfin Tuna

Put all your feelings aside whether you are a fish lover or not; whether you are pro or against Greenpeace. The bottom line is the effect on our oceans and the destructive changes that are being documented. Labeling of all our foods and where they come from serves the consumer well. We as consumers have the right to know this information. We must include this in our own conscientiousness going forward as well as saving energy and how we conduct our lives on a day to day basis placing our carbon foot prints on global warming. You can encourage your supermarket manager to be aware of what is going on and demand action. Individually we can make a difference when we end up coming together in a collective way.