What is sustainable seafood?
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According to the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) sustainable seafood means that it was fished:
- From stocks with healthy populations;
- With minimal impact on the marine environment;
- In an area with effective, responsive, and responsible management.
The sustainability of a fishery can be assessed regardless of its size, geography, or the fishing method used.
Fish has long been an essential part of culinary traditions from Europe and the Middle East to China, Japan, Korea, and North America. The breathtaking diversity of ocean and freshwater seafood, coupled with the rich, delicious flavors of fish has led humans to travel the world in pursuit of new seafood sources.
Indeed, one of the things that first attracted Europeans to the lands that would become Canada was the vast schools of cod off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and large parts of the economy in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Newfoundland and British Columbia are dependent on our unending appetite for fish, shrimp, lobster, and shellfish. The history of seafood is, in some ways, the history of Canada.
But in recent years, environmentalists, ecologists, and fishery experts have raised questions about the sustainability of Canadian fishing practices. One of the first warning signs was the collapse of the Cod fishery in 1992, which raised alarm bells about the rapidly depleting stocks of a seafood staple that had once been so plentiful, fisherman needed simply to lower baskets into the ocean to harvest it.
It wasn’t just Cod that was cause for concern; experts also warned that Salmon, a cornerstone of Canada’s seafood industry and a culinary favorite the world over, was also in danger of being overfished. One thing was clear — in order to fishing to survive as a way of life, those involved in the fishing industry would need to take sustainability seriously.
The sustainability of a fishery is an ongoing process. After they are MSC certified, fisheries are regularly reassessed and many are required to make further improvements. Scientific knowledge also improves all the time and fisheries are encouraged to develop new ways of conserving marine resources for future generations.
From the very beginning, A Fish Company has been dedicated to providing Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley with healthy, ethically sourced seafood that is both delicious and responsibly harvested wild caught fish and seafood of all kinds. We understand that Canadians have an appetite for high quality, local, and sustainable food. We are delivering good, healthy and reasonably priced food within the reach of hundreds of consumers. Our commitment to sourcing wild caught fish is an extension of this.
Ref: https://www.msc.org