Why seafood should be sustainable

We pride ourselves on our approach to sourcing, and with the recent addition of new fish dishes on our menu, we want to ensure we stay true to this. We have worked with Food Made Good (part of The Sustainable Restaurant Association) on sourcing great quality sustainable fish, and to explain why this is important, and what to look out for, Tom from Food Made Good has kindly written a blog on the subject:

Seafood is one of the most delicious, nutritious and healthiest sources of protein. Whether it’s Friday night fish and chips, a lunchtime tuna sandwich or a plate of oysters for a treat – there’s something for every taste and occasion. But, over-exploitation of the oceans has seriously reduced the quantity of available fish. According to WWF, the population of all marine creatures has halved since 1970.

Sadly, it’s no longer possible to say there are plenty more fish in the sea and mean it literally.
That doesn’t mean we have to stop eating fish. We just have to be careful about what we eat, not just to ensure that there are adequate supplies for future generations, but also to protect ocean habitats for other creatures and really importantly, the livelihood of fishing communities.

Fortunately there are several organisations that help make it easy to identify the fish that is still good to eat – that’s come from sustainable stocks and has been caught using methods that don’t damage the rest of the marine environment. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certifies sustainable fisheries. So if you eat fish with the blue ecolabel, you know you’ve chosen well.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is a charity working to reduce overfishing, and promotes sustainable seafood alternatives. It constantly monitors stocks and on its easy to use online sustainable seafood guide, FishOnline, anyone can check out the latest information on every species, both everyday and more obscure to see if they are fish to eat or fish to avoid.

Boston Tea Party holds a Three Star Food Made Good rating, the highest possible, from The SRA, which works closely with both the MSC and MCS. Restaurants like BTP know that an increasing number of its customers have a growing appetite for information about the food on their plate. We think that knowing that the fish on your dish came at no or minimal cost to the environment and was from healthy stocks will make it taste that little bit more delish.

Watch chef Raymond Blanc, SRA President and Food Made Good champion, explain in this short animated film as he turns undercover detective.

Then tuck into some tasty sustainable seafood.

To find out more about The SRA and Food Made Good, check out their website.

Image courtesy of MSC.