iblog

The Government first recommended that we should eat more fish for the good of our health and our waistlines back in 1994, and it’s now accepted as good healthy eating advice, along with “eat more fruit and veg” and “not too much red meat”.

All very well for us, as we begin our January diet plans. However, the depleted state of British fishing stocks means that it now looks as if eating more fish - or indeed, eating fish at all - isn’t going to be an option for much longer. The types of fish we consider the most common or easiest to get hold of are often the ones whose populations are most threatened by overfishing - for instance, whitefish like cod and plaice. As it becomes more and more obvious that fish populations are dwindling, the European commission’s recommendations become tougher – in December they urged the EU to reduce cod fishing quotas by 25%.

The Food Standards Agency has now gone back to the drawing board to come up with a new dietary recommendation on fish that is not in conflict with advice from the environmental lobby that we cut back on fishing. However, all is not lost – yet. Greenpeace doesn’t ask consumers to give up fish entirely, but to be more selective about the fish they buy. Line-caught fish are best, especially those from the South-West of the UK rather than the over-fished North Sea.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 7th, 2007 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Environment, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.