How we should change the way we consume fish to save marine biodiversity

Fish is an important source of nutrition that we risk losing if we do not protect the biodiversity of the sea with conscious choices.

• The consumption of fish has always been included in the Mediterranean diet.It provides important nutrients and helps prevent some diseases.
• However, the threats to which the sea is subjected, from climate change to pollution, require us to consume increasingly more consciously.
• To save the waters and marine (and food) biodiversity of the Mediterranean, the Water Defenders Alliance was born.

The prehistoric populations who lived along the coasts of Mediterranean 9,500 years ago they consumed large quantities of fish: a recent one says so international study, led by archaeologists fromUniversity of York and in which the Environmental Biology department of the University also participatedSapienza University of Rome. Research would thus demonstrate that the paleo diet it was not mainly made up of land resources, but also those coming from the sea.

Properties of fish and benefits for the body

Always there Mediterranean diet continues to include fish consumption as an important source of noble proteins, mineral salts such as phosphorus, iodine, calcium, vitamins A, B - among all B12, rare in the plant world – and D, as well as unsaturated fats at high concentration of omega 3. 

“A recent umbrella review of numerous epidemiological studies has shown how regular consumption of fish plays a preventive role with respect to tumors, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases,” he explains Renata Alleva, specialist in Food Science.“Indeed, dha, an omega 3 fatty acid, would influence brain development already at the fetal level, through the mother's nutrition”.

Blue fish:the omega 3 and selenium content of anchovies, mackerel and sardines

“Blue fish in particular, such as anchovies, mackerel and sardines, are rich in unsaturated fatty acids and selenium, one of the modulators of the thyroid and therefore of metabolism.These are small fish which, compared to large predatory fish, also avoid the bioaccumulation of mercury and other pollutants such as microplastics", explains Alleva.

Fish, therefore, can be consumed a couple of times a week, as part of a varied and balanced diet, but with awareness of the typology and of provenance, so that the benefits outweigh the risks.“It is better to avoid fish packaged with additives;it is ok to consume frozen fish if it has maintained the cold chain", concludes the expert.

Conscious consumption of fish protects marine biodiversity

A varied diet in the choice of fish is good for our health and that of the environment:“Artisanal fishing in the past was based on around 200 species of fish,” he says Emilio Mancuso, marine biologist and science communicator, president of Water green.“Today industrial fishing has concentrated on 11 species including, for example, tuna, sea bass, sea bream, which we expect to be available 12 months a year”. And yet also fish has its season and respecting it means allowing a certain fish population to reproduce.

There overfishing it is among the main threats to marine ecosystems together with the impact of waste and pollutants.Threats that are amplified by climate crisis:“Climate change endangers biodiversity with serious consequences because it is precisely in biodiversity that lies the resilience of an ecosystem and its ability to recover following catastrophic events, whether of natural or anthropogenic origin”.

“Fortunately the sea saves itself as demonstrated by the history of the Earth”, continues Mancuso, “but we are contributing to the extinction of organisms with a speed never seen before and the first to lose ourselves will be us because the sea guarantees a series of services ecosystemic:approximately half of the oxygen present in the atmosphere comes from seas and oceans which are also important carbon reserves".

Solutions come from refining techniques and tools fishing to make them less impactful, but also from a different way of doing things farm: “When we started breeding land animals we bred herbivores;in the case of fish, however, we have bred carnivores:to make one kilo of sea bream and sea bass you need 10 kilos, if not more, of oily fish transformed into feed.Why not breed, then, fish that feed on plankton such as lathers or herbivorous fish such as salpa, for example?”.

And then there are the algae, a source of nourishment for us humans that steals nothing from the sea:algae grow quickly and absorb carbon.“We must get it into our heads that there is not just one solution, but that we are part of the solution with our conscious choices.We are closely interconnected to the sea and the oceans are the most important treasure chest of biodiversity on the planet."

Water Defenders Alliance:an alliance to save our sea and its biodiversity

In particular, in the Mediterranean Sea, which represents approximately 1 percent ofand the seas of the world, is concentrated almost the 10 percent of marine biodiversity known.From the awareness of the water problems, to defend the Mare Nostrum and protect its richness, the Water Defenders Alliance:coordinated by LifeGate, it brings together companies, people, ports and institutions and the world of research with three areas of intervention:the first, on which there is already a large amount of experience with PlasticLess, is the presence of plastic waste;then there is the chemical pollution caused by spills hydrocarbons and, finally, the fragility of marine habitats.The goal?Getting to 100 percent of every challenge, in every single port in our country.