Showing posts with label Choosing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Choosing. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Choosing Environmentally Friendly Seafood


Any time that agriculture is growing or gathering food for human consumption, there are environmental impacts that affect us all.  While farming, typical, fishing and harvesting of shellfish is no exception.  While some methods are more robust than the other (as in conventional farming), the type of seafood "farm" is not 100% stable and no one come without damage to our planet.

  Of course there's the obvious negative like waste and chemical substances that accumulate in the waterways of boats, fishermen, etc.  In addition there is also a significant amount of destruction that happened to natural habitats that sea animals, living in who poses a significant threat to their ability to sustain life.Thus, it is essential that we, as consumers, to do everything possible to support those practices that are more sustainable but vote with our wallets. Although not suggested as usual, this practice is equally important to do things like shopping in a reusable shopping bags to help keep plastic bags out of our waterways and using mild household cleaners. 

  One of the main environmental threats posed by the fishing industry is the effect it has on populations and habitats in areas where they operate.Fishermen who have large nets or cells to catch large amounts of food not only disturb the natural environment, but also known for catching a lot of by-catch-those animals that get trapped, which is not in the list of things to catch most of the catches is dying (Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program estimates that one of the four living creatures caught fishing gear dies as by-catch).  By-catch is not limited to fish. 

Often large animals like dolphins, sea turtles, and seals get caught unintentionally and eventually die as a result of an alternative method of targeting specific species for fishing using harpoons, hooks and lines, and so forth are "greener" and not cause almost as much environmental damage or the by-catch.  Unfortunately, these methods are not the kind of things that can be done on a large enough scale to meet our growing demand for seafood.  However, consumers can express their opinion with their wallets, supporting environmentally sustainable fishing practices catch seafood purchases for that can be specified using the guidance provided by the program Seafood Watch. 

Another problem that fishing throws this overfishing. Overfishing occurs faster than they can reproduce, i.e. their population is constantly decreasing captured some fish.  Species such as Atlantic code far East perch, bluefin tuna, and some species of sharks have suffered from overfishing in the past.  There are also some fish species, such as the Chilean sea bass, which reproduce much slower than the other, so that overfishing is a very real possibility that must be controlled.As a consumer you can express your opinion and help keep their population, without purchasing the fish.

There is also the issue of fish farming, which is exactly what it sounds like raising shellfish for human consumption.Farming includes shellfish like oysters, mussels and clams are much softer environmental impact than things like shrimp, salmon.For example, fish like salmon moving unnaturally high rates in cells that are placed in the ocean, the amount of waste they produce may have a negative impact on the surrounding natural populations more sustainable and environmentally sound alternative to fish farming is a separate tank, which is constantly recycled water, known as the recirculating aquaculture systems.

For more information about sustainable fishing and shellfish farming check Seafood Watch program, which is administered by the Monterey Bay Aquarium: twice a year, they update their seafood Handbook, which is calculated with seafood, farming and fishing practices on the basis of their environmental impacts and threats to health.They frequently sort the seafood in three categories: best choice, a good alternative and not on the basis of their data and analysis.They help identify products that can be used with well aware of the things that are not vulnerable to overfishing and are not caught by means of which threatened habitats or by-catch.

They also recommend the seafood that is environmentally friendly ways farmhouses in, for example using recirculation aquaculture systems mentioned above in addition to the restrictions as we put the Ocean using eco-friendly cleaners and purchase reusable bags, we also need to be aware of what we take from Ocean. This manual provided by the program look seafood goes a long way in this.








David Brown is a freelance writer who writes about a variety of issues he supports eco-friendly living and green products such as organic cotton bags. for more information about living green site its reusable bags.