Sea for yourself: the importance of sustainably sourced fish and seafood (plus recipes by Daisy Jones)

By Ashraf Booley, 6 October 2015

Fact is, our oceans are under threat. And we can help. So make like Daisy Jones and choose sustainably sourced fish and seafood to help preserve fish for the future.

By now you know that our oceans – that seemingly infinite blue, beautiful stretch that houses the nutritious (and delicious) fish and seafood we rely on – is under threat. So, how can you help to protect our marine life? By ensuring that the fish and seafood you consume is on the WWF-SASSI green list (the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative), for starters.

Just in case you thought you had bigger fish to fry, here’s a reminder of why it’s important and why eating certain fish is fishy. The recently published Living Blue Planet report (2015) speaks for itself: many fish species consumed by humans have halved over the past four decades, largely thanks to unsustainable fishing practices and overfishing. Moreover, 83% of global fisheries are fully fished or beyond, according to statistics from WWF-SASSI. If these numbers are anything to go by – and if consumption of fish and seafood on the red and orange lists (click here to view the red list and here to view the orange list) – continues at this alarming rate, the future of our ocean is looking bleak.

What can you do? Choose green-list fish such as snoek, squid, angelfish and anchovy (click here to view the full green list) and support retailers that support WWF-SASSI, such as Woolworths, in an effort to conserve endangered fish and seafood for future generations.

Here are a few of our favourite (sustainable) fish recipes:

Mussels in roasted tomato and fennel sauce on pasta

Snoek sandwich with spicy cabbage relish

Roast honey-and-orange yellowtail with ginger spring onions

Mozzarella and anchovy toasties with black olives

Salt-and-pepper calamari with sweet chilli sauce

Ashraf Booley

Article by Ashraf Booley

Woolworths TASTE’s digital content producer loves nothing more than trying out inventive recipes and using close friends and family as his guinea pigs. When he’s not crafting content or posting images to TASTE’s Instagram account, he sits in a quiet corner sipping on pretentious tea and penning poetry.
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