Good for the sole

摘要

The expression 'Plenty more fish in the sea' shows how seafood has long been viewed as inexhaustible, but the reality is that fish stocks are under threat all around the world. A recent report from the UN s Food and Agriculture Organisation states that nearly 70 per cent of marine fisheries are either fully or overexploited and per cent are depleted or recovering from depletion. So whats a conscientious consumer to do? Stop buying fish altogether or eat only those species which are not overexploited? Or choose farmed fish to take the pressure off wild ones? If your fridge is regularly full of fish, don't panic - paradoxically, the last thing many species need is for you m stop eating them. "If you stop buying fish, you may drive the price down," says Louise Heaps, fisheries policy officer at WWF. "If prices are low, fishermen will then have to catch more in make the same amount of money." Instead, what we should do, says Heaps, is "vary the kinds of fish that we eat to reduce the pressure on themain species that we stick to in the UK, such as cod, plaice, haddock, salmon and prawns. We actually catch many more species in British waters that are edible."