Buy Better, Protect Our Oceans: How to Choose Eco-Friendly Fish With This One Click App

Sponsored Post Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide

See what app we’re talking about here.

I was cooking dinner for my family the other night, while multitasking loads of other things that us mums do in an evening. I was meal planning, writing the weekly shopping list, trying to persuade our eldest to get in the shower and helping my daughter do an assignment on overfishing and marine ecosystems, all at the same time.

Mums have so much on their plates! I’ve never been this busy!

I was just putting the salmon in the oven to bake when my daughter asked me where it was caught, if it was farmed or wild, and if it was sustainable or not.

What? I immediately felt uncomfortable. Was this fish that I was serving for dinner part of the problem? How could I tell? Do I not have enough things to worry about?

Then I realised that our meal related directly to her assignment on sustainable seafood and that this was a learning moment, for both of us. I figured that I’d have to make sure, for my piece of mind, for my now-concerned daughter, and for the environment. It turns out there’s not plenty more fish in the sea.

I picked up my phone and did a quick Google search for “eco-friendly fish” but couldn’t find anything that really told us if our meal was environmentally friendly or not. There was a lot of information, sure, but nothing that quickly and easily told me if I had bought the best type of fish for both my family and the environment.

After a bit more digging (prompted by my very persistent daughter), I came across the website of Australia’s  Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS). Within seconds I had the answer I was looking for — my choice of fish was okay, but I could have done better if I had known earlier.

And that’s when I found the Guide’s app and realised that I could use it to quickly check which seafood would be the best choice, right then and there when it counts the most – at the point of purchase.

It’s hard enough as it is, trying to find the right food to feed your family without worrying about things like the environment while you’re struggling with a dodgy trolley through aisle six, but Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide app makes it oh so easy.

You can use it in the frozen food aisle or at the deli counter at the supermarket. Pull it up at the fisherman’s co-op, or even use it at the fish and chip takeaway or at a restaurant.

The search is quick and easy, and the results are revealed with a tri-colour traffic light system, immediately giving you the status of the seafood without having to read further — this is a great chance to get the kids involved!

Let them search for the seafood on the app and see if they can find the best choice.

Then there is a more detailed explanation if you have the time to really learn about the subject. Fish is just fish, right? And as they say, there are plenty of fish in the sea!

Well, apparently not.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society are a bit of an authority on seafood – with fifty years of working on our oceans, I’m inclined to trust them!

Three-quarters of our global fish stocks are either over-exploited or fished right up to their limit. Unfortunately, fish farming may not be the whole answer either because what do fish eat? Other wild fish!

There is no doubt that we all want to help the environment, and our kid’s future, but it’s so hard to know what to do as a consumer when all you’re trying to do is get the shopping done with grizzly children and tired feet.

But when you stop and think about your own children’s future, you always want the best for them, right? Picture them never being able to eat fish or enjoy the clean oceans, because generations before them didn’t do their absolute best to protect the oceans for them.

We recycle, we cut down on unnecessary waste and buy local produce when we can, but family life easily gets in the way, pushing other environmental concerns down the priority list a little. But now we have no excuses when it comes to making better seafood choices!

Your dollar counts. It does make a difference. Your purchase, and my purchase, and everyone’s purchases together can create change and push the fisheries to produce a more sustainably sourced product.

As Oprah says, when we know better, we do better. We make better choices. The Sustainable Seafood Guide is making those better choices a no-brainer.