IWT Consumer Guide to Seafood

How what you eat can help save the seas

Over-fishing: What’s the problem?

Decades of mismanagement and over-fishing have left the seas around Ireland and Europe practically devoid of fish with familiar dinner plate specials such as Cod, Sole and Whiting practically extinct in Irish waters.

In fact up to 88% of our fish stocks are being fished unsustainably while 30% are ‘outside safe biological limits’ (a euphemism for threatened with extinction)[1]. Unlike chicken and beef that are farmed fish are wild animals and they are a part of a marine ecosystem that is just as complex and interrelated as any on land.

However unlike ecosystems on land far less is known about what is going on under the sea and so by the time scientists have a clear picture it may be too late to reverse the damage.

It is estimated that by 2050 all commercially exploitable fish species will have been over-fished[2], depriving us not only of a tasty and nutritious source of protein but destroying livelihoods, communities and a part of our cultural heritage.

However this scenario is not inevitable and decisions that are made today can reverse the path to destruction and ensure a sustainable fishing resource for generations to come. You, the consumer, have a vital role to play in securing a positive outcome and avoiding environmental catastrophe.

1: European Commission. 2009. GREEN PAPER. Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
2: Worm et al. 2006. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services . Science. Volume 314. November 2006. pg787-790.

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