The issue of sustainability is a big concern in the fishing industry as the demand for seafood is increasing. Overfishing is a enormous problem because if certain fish populations are destroyed then their environment could be greatly damaged & the number of jobs for fisherman could take a serious hit. One of the answers to all of these issues is environmentally friendly fisheries. These fisheries use more environmentally friendly methods of fishing that protect against over-harvesting fish & destroying their natural habitats. One method of conventional fishing, especially for shellfish, is trawling. Do you follow? This involved dragging a net behind a fishing boat at great depths in order to catch fish.

The problem with this technique is that the fishermen have little control over what they catch in their nets & they could be killing important sea life. Farmed seafood is another damaging form of fish production. It takes about ten pounds of small, open ocean fish to produce 2.2 pounds of high protein fishmeal that is fed to farmed fish like salmon. This has a deeply harmful effect on the environment by rapidly depleting the numbers of these wild fish in order to grow farmed fish that are actually not ideal for consumption. Environmentally friendly fisheries focus on achieving sustainable fishing that works in partnership with the environment, not against it.

These fisheries use special equipment & methods to make certain that the fish populations continue. One technique is to use an echo-sounder to locate fish & then lower a drift net deep into the water. The mesh of the net is at a size that allows the smaller fish to swim through so that they can continue to grow & produce more fish, thereby maintaining the sustainability of the population. The growing consumer concern over where their food comes from makes environmentally friendly fisheries a good investment, since being able to label seafood as "eco-friendly" is a great marketing advantage. And so... Sustainable fishing is not only good for the environment but it also helps preserve jobs for fishermen by maintaining fish populations year after year. Eco-friendly fishing is the rising trend that will leave people & the environment much better off.