Fishing does not produce fish, but it takes it out from the environment; it would be the equivalent of hunting land animals, which almost disappeared nowadays. Although some people see the glass half full and others half empty, all the sectors related with fishing recognize that the situation of the seas is serious. At the present time, the worldwide fishing fleets have the capacity to fish more than the oceans can support. The state of exploitation varies a lot depending on the origin of the fish, but we can try to look for the less overexploited one.
The majority of fishermen all over the world work at small or medium scale, in coastal areas; the 80% of the European fleet in the Mediterranean is of vessels having less than 12 metres length. The big fishing fleets are fishing in all oceans and cause big environment and social impacts. The artisanal fishing or at moderate scale is the most sustainable and profitable, and maintains alive the culture and the fishing villages (further information on the different types of fishing here). Let us look for your own fish.
Fish farming is growing. It is said by some people that it is the solution to the depletion of the sea, but... the food for this fish has to be fished also! And those exploitations have very important environment and social impacts; here we can see a sample. Let us eat little fish of aquaculture.
On this table we have a digest of the characteristics of different species in respect of all the parameters, position in the trophic chain, quantity of fat, most usual origin, state of exploitation, farming in fishing farms...
