Shop for sustainable seafood

Supporting sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices creates a healthy, abundant ocean for everyone.

What's the issue?

Impacts on marine ecosystems

Even the most remote parts of the ocean are impacted by human activities such as fishing and aquaculture.
Some fishing methods, particularly bottom trawling and dredging, can destroy delicate habitats that provide shelter, food and breeding territory for a variety of marine species. This gear drags across the seafloor, indiscriminately removing species of fish as well as corals and sponges. Heavily trawling an area is equivalent to clear-cutting a forest.

Impacts on wild fish populations

Overfishing – catching fish faster than they can reproduce – is a major cause for concern. Today, roughly one-third of assessed fish populations are over-fished and over half are fully-fished. Overfishing any species or group of fish disrupts the complex marine ecosystem.
Illegal fishing may include taking undersize fish, fishing without permission, using illegal gear, taking more than the allocated limit, or even illegally transporting seafood. International fisheries management agencies estimate that approximately one-fifth of the world’s catch is illegal, unreported or unregulated.
Bycatch – the incidental or unwanted catch of unwanted species – often occurs as the results of using less selective fishing gear such as longlines, gillnets or bottom trawls. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals (including whales, dolphins and porpoises) are killed as bycatch annually.

Impacts on people

In addition to reducing the amount and quality of seafood available for human consumption, overfishing makes it more difficult for fishermen to make a living and disrupts the balance of marine ecosystems.
Illegal fishing harms local and global economies by flooding the market with cheap product.

What is zoo Atlanta doing to help?

Zoo Atlanta is a proud partner of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.
Zoo Atlanta uses Seafood Watch® guidelines to purchase sustainable seafood when feeding our animals. Piscivorious animals at Zoo Atlanta include the giant otter, scarlet ibis, bald eagle and numerous turtle species.

What can you do to help?

Visit seafoodwatch.org to help you find the most sustainable seafood options at the grocery store or on a restaurant menu. You can search by species to determine the best sources for your favorite seafoods.
Ask your server or the clerk at the seafood counter, “Do you serve/sell sustainable seafood?”
Look for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) logos. Seafood Watch recognizes these (and other) certifications as equivalent to their Best Choice or Good Alternative ratings.

Additional Information

Fishing Methods

Bottom trawls are cone-shaped nets that are pulled long the seafloor. If not modified to allow unwanted marine life to escape, this method of fishing can lead to bycatch in addition to damaging sensitive seafloor habitat.
Dredges are metal-framed baskets that are dragged across the seafloor and may even scrape or dig into the substrate with rakes or teeth (towed dredges). Dredging can cause significant damage to seafloor habitats and threaten bottom-dwelling species.
Gillnets are walls of netting that are nearly invisible to fish. They may be set between stakes driven into the seabed or used to encircle schools of fish in shallow water. Gillnets can lead to bycatch, but modifying placement in the water and adding gear to warn passing marine mammals can reduce the threat.
Handheld fishing methods, such as handlines (baited hooks hauled in by hand) and jigs (grappling hooks used to manually lure and pull prey out of the water), are considered more environmentally responsible because there is very little bycatch or damage to marine ecosystems.
Harpoons are poles that have a barbed steel point that is thrust into an animal by hand or gun, then hauled aboard a vessel by a retrieving line. Since the species and size of fish is identified before it’s caught, this method of fishing significantly reduces the occurrence of bycatch.
Longlines consist of a mainline, that may be many miles long, that either floats atop the water or is laid on the seafloor while hooked branch lines float in the water to catch fish.
Seines are long nets which are hauled over sandy or muddy bottom habitat to herd fish into the net. They can be hauled in from the shore (beach seines) or onto a vessel (boat seines). Bycatch can be an issue for this method.

Recommended resources for additional information

References

Monterey Bay Aquarium. (n.d.). Aquaculture. Seafood Watch. Retrieved on May 6, 2020, from https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/aquaculture
Monterey Bay Aquarium. (n.d.). Eco-Certified Seafood. Retrieved October 3, 2021 from https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/eco-certified-seafood
Monterey Bay Aquarium. (n.d.). Fishing & Farming Methods. Seafood Watch. Retrieved on May 6, 2020, from https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/fishing-and-farming-methods
Monterey Bay Aquarium. (n.d.). Wild Seafood. Seafood Watch. Retrieved on May 6, 2020, from https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/wild-seafood

Updated October 2021

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