How to buy the Big Five: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns
2 minute read
80% of the seafood we eat in the UK is made up of just five species: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. Ideally we should eat a wider variety of sustainably caught fish, but if you're keen to stick with the familiar – or nothing else is available – here's what you need to know.
Cod
Cod is one of the UK's favourite fish, often found in fish and chips dinners. It's a cold-water fish that is generally wild-caught rather than farmed. UK stocks are doing very badly as a result of overfishing, but stocks from Iceland are healthy and are currently at sustainable levels. Atlantic cod is available all year round but it's most abundant in autumn and winter.
Atlantic cod
Haddock
Also a chip shop favourite, haddock is generally a wild-caught sustainable option. However some stocks are running low and haddock often swim in the same areas as cod, meaning haddock fisheries may catch both species. You can protect juvenile fish by only buying fish that are larger than 30cm and avoiding buying fresh fish during the main breeding season of March and April.
Haddock
Salmon
Popular for its tasty, pink flesh packed full of omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is a versatile fish that can be wild-caught (oceans, lakes and rivers) or farmed. Both methods have some issues. Atlantic salmon is struggling in the wild and numbers are dangerously low. Some farming methods are very intensive, leading to environmental problems. Farmed salmon also have to be fed large quantities of wild-caught fish, which may not be sustainably sourced. Most of the salmon found in UK supermarkets will be Atlantic salmon farmed mainly in Scotland.
Pink salmon
Tuna
Tuna are a top predator that can grow up to 3m long and weigh as much as a horse! All the tuna we eat is wild-caught from the ocean. There are lots of different species and some are more sustainable than others. All bluefin tuna are either endangered or vulnerable. Skipjack and albacore (commonly used in tinned tuna) are usually the best choices but it depends on fishing methods. Some tuna are caught by gillnet which can be 10km long and trap all sorts of other species, including dolphins, sharks, turtles and seabirds. A 'dolphin safe' label unfortunately means very little.
Skipjack tuna
Prawns
Sourced from all over the world, prawns can be sustainable, depending on what species they are, where they're caught and whether they're wild or farmed. Generally small, cold-water prawns (often found in sandwiches and prawn cocktails) are the best option. King or tiger prawns from the tropics are often farmed very intensively and in ways that can seriously damage local communities and the environment. Some Asian prawn fisheries use bottom trawls – an industrial fishing method that scoops up everything in its path and damages the sea floor.
Northern prawn
