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Get up and dance for cod's sake!
Posted by jossc on 15 February 2008.
Do you like eating fish? Did you realise that around 75 per cent of the world's fish stocks are now fished to their limit or over-fished? While you can still eat some species of fish with a clear conscience, others are being rapidly fished close to extinction. Oxford-based band Stornoway has helpfully recorded a song that tells you which are which. 'The Good Fish Guide' is based on the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) guidelines to ethical fish consumption. It will shortly be released as a downloadable single via the Truck label, an environmentally proactive record label, with all profits to the MCS.
Brian from the band (seen in the video above) is an ornithologist, conservationist, and general fish lover, and wrote the Good Fish Guide song whilst on a field trip in Pembrokeshire. He was trapped at the back of a lecture series on evolutionary genetics, and might have died from confusion if he hadn't spent the time staring at the MCS Good Fish Guide that was stuck up on the wall. He spent three days reorganising fish names into a rhyming, alliterating tongue-twister, and the next three months trying to learn it by heart. You can hear the full song and many others on the band's website.
And Stornoway are also supporting our new Seafood Sealife project, a new network aiming to bring together influential people organisations and businesses that want to be part of a positive wave of change for our oceans. If you find Brian's tricky lyrics too hard to memorise, you can find out what threatened fish species you should be avoiding by consulting our very own red fish list.
p.robinson i understand what
p.robinson
i understand what is happening and agree but i think there should be more options to buy differnt fish in people's local area. But also more imformation about which fish are in need of help.
Fish guidance
For advice on how to choose sustainable seafood take a look at our guide to the species which are most at risk from overfishing and destructive fishing methods. This gives a rough idea of what to avoid, but there are always exceptions depending on the location of the fish and the method used to catch it.
Here are some general rules of thumb to remember to help ensure that your seafood is healthy and sustainable:
By following these rules you'll be helping to give the oceans a chance to recover, and as a bonus, the quality of the fish you're eating is likely to be much higher.