Seafood from Wild Fisheries

Commercial fisheries impact the environment in a number of ways. When evaluating a wild-caught seafood species that we sell, the New England Aquarium ChoiceCatch team looks at how these operations affect the overall health of that population, the health of other animal populations that are accidentally caught, and the damage that is caused to ocean floor habitats.

To determine the most environmentally responsible source of a particular wild-caught seafood choice, ChoiceCatch first investigates where it could come from and the stock health of these fisheries. A stock is a population of fish that inhabits a specific geographic area. Populations that are at high levels and that are not decreasing in numbers are the ones that are most likely to be healthy into the future. Many times stock health is a result of good fishery management practices, which can consist of setting limits on where, when and how much fishing can take place in a certain area.

Commercial fishing not only impacts the stock health of the fish that are supposed to be caught, but also the sea creatures that are caught accidentally, known as bycatch. In many instances, ocean floor habitats are also affected. That’s why the ChoiceCatch team also factors in the amount of bycatch and ocean floor habitat damage that occurs in their fishery evaluations.

Fishermen use many different types of fishing gear and techniques to capture the seafood we eat. All fishing gears have some impact on the marine environment, but a lot depends on how the gear is used and modified. For example, many fishermen use trawls, which are nets that are towed behind their boats, to capture fish. Trawls that are dragged on the ocean floor to catch fish cause damage to bottom habitats, but trawls that are pulled through the water above the ocean floor generally have minimal adverse effects on these bottom habitats. Innovative fishing gear technology can also help to minimize fishing gear impacts on the environment. For example, trawls that are fishing for haddock generally catch both haddock and cod (in addition to other things). This can be a problem because current Atlantic cod populations are much weaker than haddock populations. But if fishermen use a modified trawl, which has a special panel that allows cod to escape while keeping haddock, they can reduce the amount of bycatch that they generate. This technology is known as a haddock separator trawl, and is one of many ways that bycatch can be reduced by modifying fishing gear.