Fishing for Answers

I was having a discussion with a family member about fish and she very vehemently said to never eat farmed fish. I was taken by surprise. I thought farmed fish were great for the environment, saving the natural, wild fish population. She went on to say that they eat terrible, dirty mush and that the conditions were disgusting. I thought that there must be more to it than that…

We all know some things about fish. They’re chock full of Omega-3 and good fat, plenty of protein. Most people know that we have over-fished many populations and that new fishing regulations are slowly helping rebuild our wild stock. We like fresh over frozen because it tastes better. But do we, as a large group, pay attention to wild versus farmed? The subject is coming up more and more and I was able to glean some useful information.

Basically, go for wild caught when you can. Frozen, if that’s what it takes. Don’t get me wrong, there are some responsible fish farms out there and I’ll give you some links at the end of this post. But for the most part, a lot of the farms are using pesticides, antibiotics and dyes. Studies of the Omega-3 and protein content of farm raised fish have shown that they have less of both. I didn’t stop there. I kept looking for the most recent information I could find on fishies and fisheries.

There are definitely wonderful changes in the fish farming industries. There are farms that don’t use antibiotics, pesticides, GMOs or cloned fish. There are even changes in the diets of these farm raised fish that have brought up the natural level of Omega-3 you usually find in wild caught fish.

Go forth and find healthy fish for you and your family:

GreenYour – great resource of links and ways to make sure your fishing is responsible.

Whole Foods – Whole Food’s stance on their farm sourced fish. We here in ATX have plenty of stores.

CleanFish – while not exactly consumer based, you can find restaurants in Austin they recommend and there is some good information in general on the site.

Happy Fishing!