World Ocean Day: Jenny Weitzman: Confusion at the fish counter: How to eat fish responsibly

June 8, 2020 rbudd Leave a Comment

Confusion at the fish counter: How to eat fish responsibly

There are plenty of fish to choose from, but many aspects to consider.
(Shutterstock)

It now seems absurd that anyone once believed the ocean was inexhaustable: fish stocks are in dismal shape and scientists say overfishing is a global problem with potentially irreversible consequences to ecosystems and human livelihoods.

Sustainability has become a key driver of seafood consumer choices, according to a 2018 survey by Globescan on behalf of the Marine Stewardship Council.

But no longer is a visit to the local fish-and-chips restaurant a simple choice between cod and halibut. Consumers must also weigh geography, catch method and species in their food order. When did eating fish and chips get so complicated?

As a researcher who studies sustainable seafood, I also ask: “Which fish should I be eating?”

Why eat fish?

Taste aside, there are numerous health benefits to eating seafood, both for your brain and body.

Still, many Canadians remain confused or frustrated by varying health claims or unclear messages. They’re concerned about mercury, microplastics and genetically modified foods. (A Health Canada assessment concluded that the AquAdvantage GMO salmon is safe for consumption.)

It’s not surprising that many consumers are confused. The seafood industry is diverse and very different than any other meat industry in Canada.

For the most part, Canadians only eat one species of chicken, cow and pig. But an average grocery store sells a myriad of different species of fish and shellfish. Seafood is also a truly global commodity.

While most chicken and beef in North American supermarkets comes from Canada and the United States, fish species are imported from around the world — and come from very different growing conditions.

Choosing the right fish

Each consumer is different, so there isn’t one fish that rules them all. Consumers base their decisions on a variety of qualities — health, sustainability, price and origin.

1. Health claims

Like apples or broccoli, many consumers eat fish because it’s healthy. Fatty fish like salmon and mackerel are very high in important nutrients and omega-3s.

Yet many health benefits are often highly debated, and claims can be confusing. That healthy choice is sometimes obscured by concerns over contaminants like mercury or the use of antibiotics in aquaculture.

Some consumers, especially pregnant women or young children, may want to avoid larger, long-lived predatory fish like swordfish and tuna that can accumulate high levels of mercury.

In many countries like Canada and Norway, antibiotic use in aquaculture has decreased substantially in recent years, yet it remains widespread elsewhere.

Some consumers seek organic options because they are grown without chemicals. In Canada, there are some certified organic options for farmed seafood, including organic mussels.

Mussels are high in protein, low in fat and often inexpensive.
(Shutterstock)

2. Sustainability

With increasing overfishing and declining ocean health, many consumers seek sustainable seafood options.

Shellfish like mussels and oysters are considered to have the lowest environmental impact since they have low energy requirements and do not need to be fed. In some cases, they can even clean the water where they are raised, potentially helping protect or improve degraded waters.

Eating farmed fish helps reduce reliance on already vulnerable wild fish stocks. It also has a lower carbon footprint than terrestrial livestock farming. Yet debates about seafood sustainability, especially aquaculture, continue.

An aerial view of the Atlantic salmon aquaculture pens in New Brunswick.
(Shutterstock)

Eco-certification labels, like the Marine Stewardship Council and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, help consumers identify seafood caught or grown in environmentally friendly ways. Depending on where you live, popular fish, including some types of tuna, salmon and halibut, have earned a spot on the “avoid” list of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch.

3. Supporting local

In recent years, some Canadians have focused on eating local to reduce their environmental footprint and support nearby producers. For many, this means avoiding most shrimp and opting for fish like Canadian Atlantic salmon and lobster if you live near the coast or freshwater fish if you’re inland.

Consumers also need to know that many homegrown favourites are also imported, like Atlantic salmon from Norway or Chile, or tilapia from China or Indonesia.

4. Seeking affordability

While there are many great domestic seafood options, seafood in Canada is surprisingly expensive. Beyond taste, smell and appearance, price is an enduring priority for many Canadians.

Canned fish like tuna is a popular lower-priced option. Fillets of haddock, tilapia and farmed salmon are also affordable. Consumers seeking organic claims and eco-certification labels will pay a premium.

No easy feat

When it comes to fish, food labels have been unhelpful to consumers. Producers are only required to show the common name of the fish (potentially lumping many different species into a common name like tuna, shrimp or rockfish) and the origin of the packaged or fresh fish product.

To complicate matters, the so-called origin of a fish is defined as the place where it was last “transformed” into a fillet or boxed. For example, a fish caught in Canadian waters but sent to China for packaging could say “Product of China.” The origin thus doesn’t necessarily indicate where the fish was caught or farmed.

Recent investigations into fish species and origins by the conservation group Oceana have found that seafood products in Canadian grocery stores and restaurants are often mislabelled. For example, of the 472 seafood samples tested between 2017 and 2019, 47 per cent were labelled as something else. Red snapper was often substituted with tilapia and wild fish were replaced with farmed fish.

As Canadian consumers, we have a responsibility to demand more information about where and how fish reaches our tables and encouraging labelling requirements and responsible practices.

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Jenny Weitzman, Interdisciplinary PhD Candidate, Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jenny Weitzman: Celebrating World Oceans Day

June 8, 2019 rbudd Leave a Comment

“This day is really a reminder that we are all connected by this big blue world. There is one ocean that connects us all and requires us to work together to take responsibility for our choices and preserve our ocean.”

Jenny Weitzman MMM

Jenny Weitzman, Interdisciplinary PhD Student, Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University

Jenny Weitzman, Masters of Marine Management (MMM), is currently pursuing her doctorate in the Marine Affairs Program in Dalhousie University’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program. Her PhD research focuses on developing an integrated framework to inform decision-making and planning that places salmon aquaculture within the safe operating limits of the combined natural, social and economic environment. Passionate about how science and information are communicated to various audiences, her research interests revolve around issues at the science-policy interface, including aquaculture and fisheries management, sustainable seafood, environmental impact assessment, and marine and resource policy.

World Oceans Day is celebrated annually on the 8^th of June. This idea was first proposed by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) and the Ocean Institute of Canada (OIC) at the 1992 Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

CEGE Connection reached out to Jenny Weitzman to discuss the importance of celebrating and honouring the ocean.

Jenny Weitzman: Why is World Oceans Day important?

The oceans are critical to our continued life on this planet. More than half of the oxygen we breathe comes from tiny plants in the ocean. These tiny plants form the basis for the seafood we enjoy and are the primary source of protein for around 3 billion people worldwide. The massive currents that flow throughout our oceans also help control weather and regulate climate.

On June 8, we celebrate World Oceans Day. This day, we share what we love about the ocean and what it means to us. Approximately 40% of people in the world live within one-hour drive (100km) to a coast, and many more rely on the ocean directly for their livelihoods. Whether it was the beach, the beloved lobster roll, or the charismatic whales and turtles that drew us to the sea, we all have some connection to the ocean.

The oceans are dynamic and powerful yet are not invincible. The problems we face in today’s climate are global and require all of us to work together to solve. What we do, whether we live near the ocean or not, affects the ocean through our seafood choices, our plastic consumption, and fossil fuel burning. These pressures can often have the greatest impact on small coastal communities in developing nations that do not always have the capacity to deal with the scale and severity of these issues.

This day is really a reminder that we are all connected by this big blue world. There is one ocean that connects us all and requires us to work together to take responsibility for our choices and preserve our ocean.

Jenny Weitzman
June 8, 2019

Coast of Newfoundland May 2019

Thank you to the Government of Canada for proposing the concept of a World Ocean Day, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In 2002, when The Ocean Project began to globally promote and coordinate World Oceans Day development and activities, there were only a handful of events in a few countries. Now, there are thousands of events in over 120 countries and a social media reach into the several billions.

World Oceans Day

Dr. Sarah FL Kirk: Girls and women need more time in nature to be healthy

April 23, 2019 rbudd Leave a Comment

Girls and women need more time in nature to be healthy

File 20181107 74766 sast6h.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1 — Getting enough physical activity can be challenging for women and girls, because they have to negotiate complex gender roles, stereotypes and cultural narratives about the body.
(Shutterstock)

Rebecca Spencer, Dalhousie University and Sara FL Kirk, Dalhousie University

Supporting girls and women in their efforts to be physically active must become a global public health priority. Preliminary results from our research at Dalhousie University suggests that access to nature may be key to achieving this.

A recent study in The Lancet Global Health pooled global data from the past 15 years and showed persistent and worrying trends: Women continue to get insufficient physical activity, and the gap between activity levels of women and men is widening.

Similar trends are seen in girls aged 12 to 17. Only two per cent meet the requirements of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines — which include adequate sleep and at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Our own review of the evidence also found that girls have complex relationships with physical activity, requiring an ongoing negotiation of gender roles and stereotypes. They have to navigate cultural narratives focused on the “body” in many parts of their lives every day. They are expected to be pretty but to appear natural, to be thin but not too skinny, to be fit but not too muscular.

We are currently engaged in research to explore the health of adolescent girls and young women through a technique called photovoice, in which participants take photographs to represent their own experiences.

Flowers, trees, and water

In this study we asked seven research participants to take photos to explore their health, nutrition, and physical activity experiences and to bring them back to discuss in a group, and look for themes or trends.

A participant shows some of the photographs she submitted.
(Kylee Nunn Photography), Author provided

They found themes relating to challenging norms and stereotypes and to the importance of social support and confidence. They discussed their perceptions that “everything is gendered” and that there are activities girls are “supposed to do.” They talked about sometimes feeling excluded from sports dominated by boys, and expectations around what girls should wear while being active.

They also discussed how they challenge those norms. The girls, for example, took photos engaging in non-traditional physical activities like aerial circus silks and climbing trees in skirts. They also stressed the importance of support from friends and family to feel safe in challenging norms. There was also a surprising finding: the emphasis they placed on being outside in nature.

Although nature and the environment were not part of the intended research purpose, being outside emerged as important. Many of the girls and young women shared photos of natural elements, like flowers, trees and water.

A photo of a tree submitted by a research participant.
Author provided

They also took photos of themselves, their friends and families engaging in physical activity outside. This most often included general active outdoor play, but also, more specifically, activities like hiking and camping.

We learned that nature provided important context for these girls and young women to feel comfortable, safe and confident to navigate the complex gender norms around physical activity.

Safe spaces outdoors

A recent review shows that, due to urbanization and parental fears, youth are less connected to nature than ever before and are missing out on health benefits as a result.

A photo of a flower submitted by a research participant.
Author provided

This trend is duplicated in popular culture, with books, songs and films depicting nature less and less over time.

Similarly, a large-scale survey in the United States shows youth spend more time with technology than nature but also indicates they value their time with nature and need more opportunity for that connection.

With the United Nations’ recent warning that we have only about a decade to alter climate change without devastating consequences, engagement with nature has never been more urgent. This can be done through encouraging outdoor play, supporting active transportation and providing safe spaces for women and girls to participate.

Achieving gender equity

Interestingly, the evidence indicates that women face barriers to experiencing nature.

Gendered expectations, fear for their safety and feelings of objectification and vulnerability mean girls and women have to negotiate these feelings in order to participate in outdoor recreation.

A photo of a girl climbing a tree submitted by a research participant.
Author provided

Achieving gender equity is a key challenge for the 21st century, reinforced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which also highlight the importance of nature, environments, sustainability and health.

The benefits of physical activity to mental and physical health are extensive but are not being realized by half the population. Studies are starting to explore gender and the outdoors, while the importance of nature to women is gaining momentum.

But there’s more to do to determine how this finding can support gender equity. The importance of nature for health promotion is an emergent trend in research, and the focus of the upcoming International Union for Health Promotion and Education Conference.

Can nature be the key to promote physical activity among girls and women? More research is needed to know for sure, but it certainly shows promise.

Rebecca Spencer, Interdisciplinary PhD Candidate & Instructor, Health Promotion, Dalhousie University and Sara FL Kirk, Professor of Health Promotion; Scientific Director of the Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University