‘Eat more fish advice is damaging environment’ say Yorkshire scientists

A York University report says that while wild stocks continue to be overfished, domestic supplies fall far below recommended consumption levels and half our seafood comes from environmentally-damaging farms.

Co-author Dr Ruth Thurstan said: “Our paper shows the serious disconnect between healthy eating recommendations and the finite capacity of wild fish stocks to meet those aspirations. It demonstrates how UK consumers have so far been protected from falling domestic production by increasing imports, but this demand is often filled at a high social and environmental cost in producer nations, many of them very poor.”

“We need to think carefully about the implications of promoting greater fish consumption in a world where many people are already protein deficient.”