Eat more fish: when switching to seafood helps — and when it doesn’t

Survey identifies several species that are more nutritious and better for the planet than beef, pork or chicken.

Jude Coleman

Nature | September 13, 2022

Small fish, such as mackerel, have a high nutritional value and a low carbon footprint.Credit: Getty

Replacing meat with certain types of sustainably sourced seafood could help people to reduce their carbon footprints without compromising on nutrition, finds an analysis of dozens of marine species that are consumed worldwide.

The study, published on 8 September in Communications Earth & Environment1, suggests that farmed bivalves — shellfish such as mussels, clams and oysters — and wild-caught, small, surface-dwelling (pelagic) fish, which include anchovies, mackerel and herring, generate fewer greenhouse-gas emissions and are more nutrient dense than beef, pork or chicken.

Genes Reveal How Some Rockfish Live up to 200 Years

Jack Tamisiea

Scientific American | November 11, 2021

Yellowtail rockfish in a kelp forest off the coast of North America in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Alamy

Few groups of animals encapsulate the extremes of longevity more than fish. While coral reef pygmy govies survive for less than ten weeks, Greenland sharks can endure more than 500 years. So when a team of biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, wanted to explore the genetics of aging, they grabbed their fishing gear.

Their preferred catch was rockfish. Found in coastal waters from California to Japan, rockfish are a colorful group of more than 120 species in the genus Sebastes. Some of these closely related species live for only a decade. Others, such as the rougheye rockfish, can live for more than 200 years.

Protect fish to produce more food and reduce greenhouse gas

ECOLOGY 

Tim Radford

Climate New Network | March 25 2021

Menhaden catch, destined for use as fertilizer and pet food. (Wikimedia Commons)

Scientists have identified a sure way towards more profitable fishing: don’t do it. Protect fish and leave as much of the seas as possible untouched.

To convert the right stretches of the blue planet into marine sanctuaries would actually deliver bigger hauls than any uncontrolled harvests could promise. It could also protect marine wildlife and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

India: Industrial Corridors Swallow Hundreds of Fish Species in Gujarat

by Damayantee Dhar

The Wire | May 23, 2018

A fisherman holds up a dead catch in Ahmedabad. Credit: PTI files

Ahmedabad: Gujarat has the longest coastline in the country, running into 1,660 kilometres. Its coast is home to 549 villages with a population of more than 30 million. Fishing is the primary source of income for the majority of this population, who are dependent on it either directly or indirectly.

There were once more than 300 species of fish along this coastline owing to the diversity of habitat with salt marshes, mangroves and sea grass.