If you’ve never understood the term “sustainable seafood”, now’s the time to learn. And don’t worry about not knowing before – we only learned about it last week.
In a nutshell (or should I say “sea shell” in this case) current fishing practices are destroying our oceans. We’re killing off fish populations and disrupting marine environments. That’s not to say however that we should stop eating seafood altogether.
That’s where “sustainable seafood” comes in.
To put it simply, it’s seafood from fishermen who have changed their fishing ways after recognising that today’s actions have a long-term impact on tomorrow’s oceans.
Last Friday was Sustainable Seafood Day, but all-month-long Australians are encouraged to host their own sustainable seafood lunch and dinner feast. In fact, if you register online at www.msc.org/forthesea the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) will even send you a free hosting pack.
We joined event host Bondi Rescue’s Harries Carroll and media dietician Dr. Joanna McMillan at Bucket List to celebrate the nation’s annual day, and got the chance to ask Dr. McMillan some questions:
Why is it so important to purchase sustainable seafood?
As a dietitian and nutritionist I have long been advising people of the benefits of including seafood in their diet, but if we don’t take account of sustainability issues there will not be enough seafood for our future generations. We absolutely must start to support sustainable fishing practices and the MSC certification is a major step forward in helping us to do that.
What are the health benefits of incorporating seafood in the diet?
Seafood is the richest source of long chain omega-3 fats (plant foods only provide the shorter chain omega-3s) that are essential to our heart and brain health in particular. They also have an anti-inflammatory effect in the body and many people are in a low grade chronic inflammatory state.
Where can Sydney-siders go about buying and eating sustainable seafood?
The MSC label will start to appear more and more on the seafood produce we buy in the supermarket and I hope to start seeing it appear in our local fishmongers. The system is far from perfect yet as seafood is so often not correctly labelled. However we can all start to push this forward by demanding from fishmongers to know more about where our seafood comes from and how it is fished.
How will they know for sure its sustainable?
I look for the MSC ecolabel and I use the Australian Sustainable Seafood Guide App and website all the time and I ask my fishmonger if I’m not sure about the produce.
Do you have any tips on best ingredients to use in a sustainable feast?
I love using mussels and other shellfish as these are amongst the most sustainable and they are actually very affordable. I love to make seafood stews where I combine fish such as salmon or snapper, with mussels, prawns and squid or octopus. It makes for a nutritionally fabulous and completely delicious meal my whole family loves. We just tea, it with crusty grainy bread and a big salad. Yum!
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