Oysters make Good Fish Guide

Guilt-free fish are back on the menu, as The Marine Conservation Society updates the Good Fish Guide.

If you served up oysters for your beau on Valentine’s Day yesterday, the good news is that the farmed variety are given the thumbs up.

learn more about the fish on your plate

The MCS publishes its helpful guide to sustainable seafood to put consumers in the driving seat. Anchovies from the Bay of Biscay have been upgraded from ‘ok occasionally’ and are now ranked as Fish To Eat – good news for pizza fans.

How about that staple of our sandwiches, the tuna? Well, skipjack from the Indian Ocean or Maldives is now fine if it’s caught via pole and line, as is bigeye tuna reeled in via the troll-caught method.

Closer to home, for the first time Dover or common sole trawled from the North Sea makes the ok list.

Cod, however, continues to be a problem and is ranked as threatened or declining in the North and Celtic seas. Also a worry is whitebait, frequently found on dinner plates as a starter.

Bernadette Clarke of the MCS said: “We are urging people not to choose whitebait because they are small, immature fish, usually sprat, herring and sand eel, which are harvested in large quantities, putting pressure on stocks and reducing food supplies for other species in the food chain such as marine birds.”

To learn more about the fish on your plate, the Pocket Good Fish Guide is available now. Alternatively, check out the guide via the iPhone App, or point your browser at the more detailed Good Fish Guide and Fishonline websites for the most up-to-date advice.