Global recovery of fish stocks with the help of the Seafood Initiative

Founded in 2004, the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) has created a way for consumers, retailers and wholesalers to position themselves in support of awareness in South Africa. Years of overfishing and mismanagement have caused the populations of many fish species to fall to dangerously low levels.

76% of the world’s fish stocks are now overfished, which means restaurants and traders of all kinds must take control of the situation by learning which species are in trouble and encouraging others to do so as well.

Cape Town restaurants are participating in SASSI’s Restaurant and Retailer Engagement Program. By joining the scheme, they will voluntarily agree to ensure that they only buy fish from legal sources and never trade in species whose sale is illegal (as stipulated in SASSI’s ‘red list’).

Restaurants also strive not to promote species that come from overexploited or vulnerable populations and always have better options available to their customers: fish and shellfish from relatively well-managed and healthy populations.

The initiative also educates buyers on the methods used to catch fish and their associated impacts. As discerning shoppers, restaurants and retailers can use their consumer purchasing power to try to encourage more responsible fishing throughout the chain of custody. “As restaurant owners, we can have a huge impact by refusing to spend our money on products that are illegal,” says Brian Singer, owner of the Blowfish restaurant. “The idea at Blowfish Restaurant is to create good food with a clear conscience.”

The fishing business is large around the world, with more than 200 million people making all or part of their income through fishing and related activities. “The solution is not to ban fishing, as this will have a negative impact on the world economy, and possibly an even worse impact on the environment, but rather is to maintain reasonable regulations by which we can make use of available resources to us without harming the environment, ”adds Jaco Barendse, SASSI’s Seafood and Technical Advisor.

SASSI provides its members with a list of South African fish that are classified according to their conservation status in a color-coded table. Red for those species that are protected such as Kingfish, Garrick, Galjoen and Blacktail, up to green for those species, such as Dorado, Snoek, Bluefish and Yellowtail, that can cope with the demands of commercial fishing. These indicators are a good way for restaurants to avoid causing damage to an already delicate and endangered environment: the ocean.

“There are also alternative solutions to fishing directly from wild stocks. Aquaculture is a fast growing sector in the Western Cape economy and seafood such as mussels, oysters and abalone are already being successfully cultivated,” adds Timony Siebert, coordinator of SASSI.

Of all fish stocks worldwide, only 3% are under-exploited, states the 2005 FAO Report. Of these, 52% are fully exploited, while 45% are moderately exploited or on the verge of a severe exhaustion. If we are not proactive in protecting our oceans, we will soon be faced with an oceanic wilderness of devastating proportions.