What is sustainable seafood?

The David Suzuki Foundation has adopted the definition of sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether fished or farmed, that can maintain or increase production in the long term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems.

How do we decide which fish and shellfish are sustainable?

The following principles, developed by Seafood Watch, illustrate the qualities that capture or farmed fisheries must have to be considered sustainable by the David Suzuki Foundation.

Species from sustainable capture fisheries:

• have a low vulnerability to fishing pressure, and hence a low probability of being overfished, because of their inherent life-history characteristics;
• have stock structure and abundance sufficient to maintain or enhance long-term fishery productivity;
• are captured using techniques that minimize the catch of unwanted and/or unmarketable species;
• are captured in ways that maintain natural functional relationships among species in the ecosystem, conserve the diversity and productivity of the surrounding ecosystem, and do not result in irreversible ecosystem state changes; and
• have a management regime that implements and enforces all local, national and international laws and utilizes a precautionary approach to ensure the long-term productivity of the resource and integrity of the ecosystem.

Seafood from sustainable aquaculture:

• uses less wild caught fish (in the form of fish meal and fish oil) than it produces in the form of edible marine fish protein, and thus provides net protein gains for society;
• does not pose a substantial risk of deleterious effects on wild fish stocks through the escape of farmed fish ;
• does not pose a substantial risk of deleterious effects on wild fish stocks through the amplification, retransmission or introduction of disease or parasites;
• employs methods to treat and reduce the discharge of organic waste and other potential contaminants so that the resulting discharge does not adversely affect the surrounding ecosystem; and 
• implements and enforces all local, national and international laws and customs and utilizes a precautionary approach (which favours conservation of the environment in the face of irreversible environmental risks) for daily operations and industry expansion.

The above principals cover the majority of seafood consumed in Canada, whether coming from domestic or international sources. Most of the seafood captured in Canadian waters is exported out of the country. For some fisheries, nearly all the catch is exported and, therefore, Canadian consumers have little control over these fisheries. For example geoducks, roe herring and urchin roe are all almost exclusively exported.

The David Suzuki Foundation report State of the Catch: A professional’s guide to sustainable seafood outlines the status of most of British Columbia’s fisheries and is a helpful resource for industry professionals and concerned seafood consumers.