Eight out of ten fish do not come from sustainable fishing

More than eight out of ten fish sold in supermarkets or in neighborhood fishmongers do not come from sustainable fishing, according to a survey published Thursday by UFC-Que Choisir, which denounces the use of trawling.

The consumer association carried out this study with 1,072 large-scale fishmonger departments and 139 neighborhood fishmongers between January 25 and February 8 on eight species threatened by overfishing: monkfish, herring, langoustine, saithe, mackerel, hake , sardine and turbot.

The finding is clear, according to her: her surveys show that "two thirds of fish are caught in already overexploited stocks", mainly by trawl (74%).

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Turbot, monkfish and saithe victims of unsustainable fishing

However, the trawl retains non-target species, deteriorates the seabed for bottom trawls, explains the association, for whom "in the current state of affairs, this method should therefore be banned".

"By crossing the fishing methods with the areas of capture, we calculate that overall 81% of the fish examined are fished in an unsustainable manner. Turbot, monkfish and saithe show the worst results with respectively 99% , 98% and 93% of non-sustainable fish, ”she explains.

The frozen section particularly targeted

In the frozen section, the situation is "even more catastrophic", 95% of the fish examined are not from sustainable fishing, according to UFC-Que Choisir.

More than half of the places of sale studied (55%) also offered at least one of the four species that were at the time of the study in the breeding season, "thus contributing to the weakening of these stocks".

Uninformed consumers

Fishing methods are absent on a quarter of the fish and the fishing zone is not mentioned "in more than one in ten cases. And when it is indicated, it is too often indecipherable by a non-expert consumer, because it is expressed by a code ".

However, these mentions have been compulsory since 2014.

Towards a simplified indicator?

The association therefore asks the public authorities in particular to "create a simplified indicator integrating the three dimensions of sustainability: catching area, fishing methods and seasonality".

For the National Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Breeding (CNPMEM), on the contrary, "the sustainability of French fishing has been confirmed for several years with the rebuilding of stocks as underlined by the European Commission itself and more and more stocks. many at MSY ", the maximum sustainable yield, that is, the quantity of fish that can be caught without affecting the population's ability to reproduce.