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Wildlife Unfriendly Foods
Below is a list of foods - animals that are now becoming threatened or endangered; mostly due to over-fishing, and over-consumption by consumers. The best way to ensure that these foods are still around for us to enjoy later in life is to seek out alternatives, to cut down our consumption of these foods, or to stop eating them altogether.
| Status guide |
| High risk |
| Medium risk |
| Species |
Reason |
Alternative |
| Shrimp |
Catching methods, and poor farming.
More... |
Atlantic northern pink shrimp & crawfish. |
| Salmon: Atlantic & Pacific |
Overfishing, lack of genetic diversity, & moderate bycatch.
More... |
Catfish farmed in closed hatcheries. |
| Tuna: Bluefin tuna |
Overfishing & catching methods.
More... |
Skipjack tuna (safe, but declining in the Atlantic). |
Tuna: Albacore
(canned "white tuna") |
Overfishing & catching methods.
More... |
Skipjack tuna (safe, but declining in the Atlantic). |
| Scallops |
Catching methods & poor management
More... |
Atlantic scallops farmed in closed hatcheries. |
| Flounders |
Overfishing & catching methods.
More... |
Catfish farmed in closed hatcheries. |
| New Zealand Mussles |
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| Swordfish |
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| Chilean Seabass |
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| Blue crab |
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- Catching methods:
Shrimp is worse than tuna as far as catching methods are concerned. Four to Ten pounds of other marine
life is killed for every pound of shrimp caught.
- Farmed fish are bred in fish hatcheries:
One of the main problems with fish raised in hatcheries is that the fish have very little genetic diversity. While this
makes no difference to the fish that end up on your plate, a lot of hatcheries are in open water systems, giving the farmed
fish a chance to mate with the wild population, and dilute the gene pool. If you buy farmed fish, the best thing to do is
to try to buy fish that you know are farmed in closed hatchery systems.
- Overfishing:
Supplies of Salmon in the Pacific, and those in the entire Atlantic are depleted. There is such a demand for salmon in
these markets, that supplies have been dwindled to a critical level.
- Catching methods:
As with many other fish, modern catching methods dredge the sea, killing more than the intended haul of Salmon. The level
of bycatch for Salmon is rated as moderate.
- Farmed fish are bred in fish hatcheries:
One of the main problems with fish raised in hatcheries is
that the fish have very little genetic diversity, and therefore when the "bad" fish are let back into the wild,
instead of ending up on your dinner plate, they will mate with the wild population thereby diluting the gene pool
further.
- Overfishing:
Populations in the Atlantic are depleted, and those in the pacific aren't far off.
- Catching methods:
High bycatch. Even "Dolphin Safe" tuna, that reduces and in some cases eliminates dolphin bykill, is still caught
by methods that kill a number of other unwanted species.
- Overfishing:
Populations are doing better tham bluefin tuna, but are declining.
- Catching methods:
High bycatch. Even "Dolphin Safe" tuna, that reduces and in some cases eliminates dolphin bykill, is still
caught by methods that kill a number of other unwanted species.
Japanese and American scallops rate High Risk because of high bycatch, and because they have been
overfished, like shrimp. Atlantic scallops farmed in closed hatchery systems are better mananged, and a good alternative.
- Overfishing:
A popular fish, Flounder has been depleted throughout most of its range.
- Catching methods:
High amounts of bycatch are discarded due to bottom-trawling for Flounder.
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