STOP EATING FISH ARTICLE DEMOLISHED

Stop eating fish article demolished. A blog on the Sustainable Fisheries website has demolished George Monbiot’s latest opinion piece in The Guardian, which  reads: ‘Stop eating fish. It’s the only way to save the life in our seas.’

The Sustainable Fisheries blog says: “We’ve seen our share of terrible headlines, but this one is “Dewey Defeats Truman” bad.

“When wrong information about fisheries and sustainability is promoted in mainstream press, it is usually a passing reference to an old fishery myth or a misunderstanding of what fully-fished means. Sometimes we ignore the misinformation, sometimes we email the author, every so often we begrudgingly become reply-guys on twitter, but rarely have we ever felt compelled to write an entire blog.

“Presenting an ‘opinion’ that has little to no factual backing is presenting something in bad faith—a dishonest tactic meant to gaslight the public and hijack civil discourse. Hiding falsehoods behind “I’m just stating an opinion” can also be dangerous. Calling out these bad faith opinions is an important part of functioning democratic societies.

As a result, Sustainable Fisheries has fact-checked every statement made by Monbiot – their full article can be read here.

https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/fact-checking-george-monbiot/

Our mission is to communicate the science, policies, and human dimensions of sustainable fisheries.

Fisheries are a unique natural resource

Seafood is delicious, nutritious, and complicated. Fisheries are extractive, yet renewable. They are largely threatened by climate change and ocean acidification, yet eating fish instead of other animal protein would reduce carbon emissions. Fisheries are a common pool resource—the ocean is not private property—making management both fascinating and complex. We hope you enjoy learning about the intricacies of seafood as much as we like writing about it.

Seafood is important

Over 2 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of protein. Seafood is one of the least environmentally impactful proteins you can eat. Further, over 250 million people are financially supported by fisheries, but many have complicated justice and rights issues.

Seafood is not perfect

Poor & incapacitated management can lead to overfishing and bad practices. According to FAO, 69% of fisheries are currently sustainable, providing 82% of consumed seafood. We want to get these numbers up to 100%!

Seafood is getting better

Fisheries in many countries have been improving for decades. After many high profile fish stock crashes in the 1980s & 1990s (like Atlantic Cod), governments around the world have made huge efforts to manage their fisheries. The US leads the way in sustainability with 95% of fisheries providing over 99% of consumed seafood.

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