[tas]

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The asda/sharks thread set me thinking.

I'm not a hippie environmentalist - (although I'm now thinking of becoming an apprentice "hippie environmentalist") - but there are a number of underwater creatures I don't or won't eat...

Cod - except Icelandic - because I saw a program about North Sea cod-fishing and couldn't believe it...

Shark - ever since I read on this forum that a gazillion of them are killed each year and they only produce young twice a century...or something like that. And I often leave a restaurant that serves shark-fin soup.

Marlin - 'cos I've seen one of these strung up on a weighing station and it was one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen displayed in one of the saddest ways imaginable. I just wished it was back in the water for me to see while diving.

Octopus - incredible, fabulous beasties. I went diving a little while after having an octopus curry and saw my first octopus underwater on that dive - guilt, guilt, shame, embarrassment and guilt,

Squid - ditto

Turtle - obviously

courgette - doesn't qualify as an underwater creature I know but it's a disgusting vegetable that no-one should eat anyway.


So what other fish / sea-creatures should I not be helping send to early extinction? Tell me now, before I accidentally eat the last one.


tas

 

[Mary]

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Quote[/b] (tas @ Mar. 08 2004,07:54)](although I'm now thinking of becoming an apprentice "hippie environmentalist")

<font color='#F52887'>Is this with or without the dreds, scruffy beard and no showers?  

 

[Dominic]

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I have a really simple rule which makes the whole thing easy:

Don't eat sea food.

Obviously, it helps if, like me, you don't actually LIKE seafood...

 

[Rick Huggins]

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<font color='#0000FF'>To break from your subject a little Tas.

Don't eat pasties and beans with brown sauce on your SI at the Cove.

They repeat and nearly block your DV on return

I didn't know fish liked/eat carrots!

 

[Fathoms Down]

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Monkfish - Ugly looking buggers but have a very long reproductice cycle.

Scampi - No, they're not little prawn like things, they're a cut of monkfish (see above).

Salmon - Farmed salmon are treated with poison to kill sea lice and this poison kills other small sea creatures.

Rock Eel - No such fish; this is another name for dog fish or wolf fish.

Prawns - Very distructive fishing methods used to collect them.

Beer - Huh? The finings used to clear the particles out of the beer are made from fish swim bladders.

So, scampi and a pint anyone?  

 

[aclivity]

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<font color='#810541'>just how 'sea friendly' is Hoki?  I've seen that recently sold as an alternative to Cod (tried it, I like it but my wife thinks it tastes a bit too fishy.  Honestly).

What about Tuna?

 

[daz]

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Quote[/b] (aclivity @ Mar. 08 2004,10:02)]just how 'sea friendly' is Hoki?  I've seen that recently sold as an alternative to Cod (tried it, I like it but my wife thinks it tastes a bit too fishy.  Honestly).

What about Tuna?

Yep Tuna tastes fishy as well  

Actually I try to stick to the "I won't eat them, if they won't eat me philosophy" when it comes to seafood  

Hoki is apparently a reasonably "friendly" fish to eat.  Probably not quite so friendly if it knew what was going to happen to it.

Here is a list I found that some people might find useful.

Seafood buyers guide

 

[Mary]

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<font color='#F52887'>Very interesting readin Daz, but they still have Cod as and abundant good fish? maybe we are being spun a line.

 

[aclivity]

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Quote[/b] (Mary @ Mar. 08 2004,12:38)]Very interesting readin Daz, but they still have Cod as and abundant good fish? maybe we are being spun a line.

<font color='#810541'>I wondered about that, but there was two mentions of cod in the report:

1. Pacific cod - good (apparently)
2. lingcod - bad.

I was going to have a google to see if what I knew as atlantic cod was being referred to as lingcod but then I decided to go and get my dolphin friendly yellowfin tuna sandwich instead.

Andy

 

[Tim Ingmire]

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certain cod stocks are supposedly friendly which is a load of bollocks cos soon they won't be.   I challenged the guys at Unilever on this when I worked there, got a non-answer about non-atlantic stocks or some other bull.

Also, other deep sea fish are starting to become common in fishmongers now - again using non-sustainable techniques and being caught at a non-sustainable rate.

I love se-food tho, can't help it but it is delicious, but try to keep to 'friendly' food.

Actually I'm starting to read a book called 'Cod' and its about  this exact topic and the collapse of the fisheries.  It really is amazing how short sighted and stubborn we can be when jobs are at stake.

 

[daz]

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Quote[/b] (Mary @ Mar. 08 2004,12:38)]Very interesting readin Daz, but they still have Cod as and abundant good fish? maybe we are being spun a line.

They do specify Pacific Cod,  I'm not a hippy ecologist but I think that it is Atlantic Cod that are in serious trouble.

Oh BTW,  Apparently Whale Shark is not recommended either.  It is  quite difficult to dip them in batter.

Daz

 

[aclivity]

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<font color='#810541'>More information on cod (pacific vs. Atlantic) on here:
Monterey Bay Aquarium

and Lingcod is not the same as atlantic cod.

 

[John Gulliver]

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Quote[/b] (aclivity @ Mar. 08 2004,13:46)]2. lingcod - bad.

I was going to have a google to see if what I knew as atlantic cod was being referred to as lingcod but then I decided to go and get my dolphin friendly yellowfin tuna sandwich instead.

Andy

Lingcod is a Pacific species, fairly abundant in, for example, British Columbia. Its name is extremely misleading. It's not related to either ling or cod.

 

[John Gulliver]

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The Swedish branch of the WWF has issued a pamphlet on what fish we should eat and what we should avoid. If I remember correctly, practically all North Sea species are more or less threatened except herring. Most farmed species are on the black-list too, owing to the negative environmental impact: eutrophication, use of antibiotics, destruction of tropical mangrove swamps etc etc. It makes depressing reading for a seafood-lover like me.

 

[Mary]

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<font color='#F52887'>sorry to have mixed them up guys, have to say I rarely eat seafood unless I've just done a scallop dive

 

[Conor]

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I'm with Dominic on this one, don't eat em, cos I don't like it.

But also the ethical side does hit home also. I used to study Environmental Imapct Asessment and Life Cycle Analysis and the thing that stayed with me was that it is all but impossible to compare two different impacts. E.g. what is the alternative to Fish?

Red meat or Vegetables ? Use of fishmeal, Chemicals, ground clearance, leaching etc means that you are less directly impacting the freshwater and marine Ecologies,  but it is still being damaged.

The catch is it is hard to say that any food stuff is enviromentally friendly.


except maybe Pot Noodles....have you ever seen a wild Pot Noodle?

 

[aclivity]

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Quote[/b] (camdiver @ Mar. 08 2004,13:51)]except maybe Pot Noodles....have you ever seen a wild Pot Noodle?

<font color='#810541'>Herds of pot noodles sweeping majestically across the plains?

The 'meat' in pot noodles is soya or TVP, IIRC.  They don't do a fishy flavoured pot noodle, though, so it may not be a solution for everyone.

Whilst we are on a seafood related topic (albeit one that is straying dangerously close to "what's the best pot noodle flavour" one) what is "chicken of the sea" anyway?  I've seen this on US programs and it's been in the local Costco store.  Is this a way of getting US folk to eat more fish?

 

[Finless]

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Just face up to it - the Planet is doomed. Did you hear me? DOOMED I say!

There are just too many human beings around. Whilst there may be room for plenty more we are already at population levels that are significantly affecting the planet ie: depletion of fish stocks. We leave the cod alone for a while and then decimate some other species instead.

I know I've mentioned this previously so ALL I will say on the subject is remember the petri dish, agar jelly and bacteria experiment.

Oh yes, will you PLEASE STOP PEEING AND DUMPING IN MY SEA!!!! Whoever you are.

Tut - you should hear me when I'm depressed.  

I would like to point out the above sentiments are my own personal long held ramblings and are not representative of my mid life crisis.

 

[Conor]

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Quote[/b] (aclivity @ Mar. 08 2004,13:59)]what is "chicken of the sea" anyway?

http://www.chickenofthesea.com/

tis tuna

 

[Gimbo]

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<font color='#0000FF'>Just been told by my doctor to lower the cholrestorol so have to keep off seafood: I can just about manage except for my favourite: Goose neck barnacles. These are delicious. They live kust below the low tide mark on rocks where it gets plenty of surf as it needs well oxygenated water. It's dangerous to get them because one has to grab a hand full in between crashing surfc, hence why they are so expensive. Anyway since the Prestige oil disaster there are less around and the ones that are are quite toxic, so have to keep off those as well.

Last Saturday I dived off Mussel rafts in Vigo bay. I suppose this is as enrironmental friendly form of fishing as one can get. As far as I know they are not gentically modified, have sea life, not artificially fed (they feed off the shit and piss dumped into the water by humans) and they filter the water.