What can you do to support sustainable seafood?

Avoid buying undersized fish, gravid crabs (unlaid eggs), endangered, threatened or vulnerable species.

Tips: DO NOT BUY: sharks, rays, mantas, sea turtles, parrotfish, and orange spotted grouper.

Limit consumption of indigenous species from inland waters especially those that do not have an established aquaculture technology for breeding or propagation e.g. ludong or President’s fish, pigek/bulidao or Tapiroid Gunter.

Ask where your seafood is coming from and how it was farmed or caught. Support efforts to make fish more traceable by encouraging your suppliers to provide documentation where possible.

Tips: Handline fishing is better! Avoid fish caught through dynamite, cyanide, or bottom-trawling.

Support efforts for more responsible and equitable practices: choose products caught by fisheries who support the protection of marine sanctuaries and stricter rules protecting the fishery. Choose products from companies adhering to proper labor standards.

Tips: Some global seafood suppliers have been linked to human rights violations, such as use of slave labor. Ask the supplier, “Do you sell/serve sustainable seafood?”

Educate yourself and others.

Tips: Good references are seafoodwatch.org, ASEAN Good Aquaculture Practices, and the Code of Practice for Fish and Fishery Products.

SEAFDEC/AQD will be joining this year’s Sustainable Seafood Week PH activities. The opening event will be held in Hyatt City of Dreams on 20 February 2017.

For more information, send a message on their Facebook page.

See you there!