How to Buy and Eat Seafood Responsibly

 

“Our investigation into the farmed fish industry found human-rights violations and health concerns. Here’s what you can do.

 

Fish farming, known as aquaculture, was supposed to help solve overfishing by producing more seafood without taking as much from the sea. But it’s actually made the problem worse. Most farmed seafood is raised on fishmeal, a nutrient-rich powder that is made from cooking and pulverizing other wild-caught fish. Our multiyear investigation revealed that the fishmeal industry is not only exacerbating this environmental crisis but has also been linked to a host of other ills: forced labor, pollution, worker deaths and injuries, and harmful chemicals that end up in the seafood.

 

In light of our findings, readers may be asking themselves: Is it possible to shop for and eat seafood ethically?

 

Consumers who want to reduce their exposure to the harms associated with fishmeal can:

 

Favor seafood that does not need to eat other fish.

 

Bivalves such as mussels, oysters and clams grow by filtering nutrients from the water and require little or no manufactured feed. By contrast, farmed salmon, shrimp, sea bass and other fed species generally depend to some degree on fishmeal or fish oil.

 

Pay more attention to distance and seasonality.

 

Seafood imported year-round from far away often passes through longer, more complicated supply chains, obscuring labor abuse, illegal fishing, pollution and other hidden costs. Local does not automatically mean sustainable, but shorter supply chains are generally easier to scrutinize. In the United States, the Local Catch Network helps consumers find seafood caught and processed nearby without overseas intermediaries.

 

Consult resources from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 

The aquarium has a Seafood Watch program to help diners compare seafood based on species, origin and production method. Its recommendations focus on environmental sustainability, however, and generally do not incorporate labor or human-rights concerns.

 

Consumers can only make informed choices if companies make those choices possible. Seafood companies have access to shipping records, contracts and other trade data that consumers, journalists and watchdog groups often do not, as well as the leverage to demand credible audits and greater transparency from suppliers. A growing number of nonprofit organizations are trying to shed light on the problem. SeaChoice’s Seafood Progress and Oxfam International’s Supermarket Scorecard track companies’ adherence to human-rights and environmental sourcing commitments. But retailers sometimes exclude large portions of the seafood they sell from those sourcing policies altogether.

 

Certification programs are supposed to provide another layer of reassurance. Best Aquaculture Practices, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, MarinTrust and Friend of the Sea are among the most prominent programs tied to farmed seafood. But critics warn that certification can create a false sense of security. Audits may not reach far enough up the supply chain, and true surprise inspections are uncommon.

 

The Outlaw Ocean Project created Bait to Plate to help consumers, journalists, companies, regulators and researchers see where seafood comes from and how it moves through the supply chain. Bait to Plate tracks seafood across tens of thousands of ships, fishmeal plants, fish farms, processors and grocers, documenting cases involving forced labor, unpaid wages, crew abandonment, illegal fishing, shark finning, chemical dumping, avoidable deaths and other forms of misconduct. The Ocean Actions Index compiles proposals about steps that individuals, companies and governments could take to address the problems documented in the reporting.

 

Consumers alone cannot police a global industry. Companies have to make their supply chains more transparent, retailers have to demand better information from suppliers, and governments have to enforce laws against illegal fishing, forced labor and other abuses. The burden should not fall on a consumer to investigate a product that companies themselves cannot — or will not — trace.

 

There is no obvious silver bullet for making fish feed more sustainable. Researchers have experimented with insects, algae, microbes, soy and other alternatives to fishmeal, but each brings trade-offs involving cost, scale, nutrition, land use or food security. These substitutes may reduce reliance on wild fish, but none offers a consequence-free way to maintain the same level of production. That is one reason some researchers argue that the solution cannot be technological alone; it also requires rethinking what — and how much — we eat.

 

For some, responsible consumption has meant eating less seafood and meat altogether. Producing animals for food often requires catching or growing other food to feed them, adding another step between ecosystems and the dinner plate. Sustainability will require eating less animal protein, wasting less, demanding more transparency and accepting that seafood produced responsibly may sometimes cost more. Until the environmental and human costs of cheap seafood are reflected in its price, those costs will continue to be paid elsewhere.” [1]

 

The people who eat these fish-farm products pay the price, too. To keep production costs low, large numbers of fish are raised in cramped conditions. Antibiotics are used to protect them from disease, fostering antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are harmful to us. The fish swim in dense concentrations of their own waste, and the taste leaves much to be desired. Why buy and eat them, then, if they don't taste good? 

 

1. How to Buy and Eat Seafood Responsibly. Urbina, Ian.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 10, 2026.