Mexico City, Feb 17 (IANS/EFE) The species of fish and shellfish most consumed in Mexico “are at risk” due to overfishing, according to international NGO Greenpeace.
Red snapper, shrimp, sardines, sharks, rays, tuna and groupers from the Gulf of Mexico, salmon from the Atlantic and grey mullet are all on a Red List prepared by the group.

“We Mexicans want to continue eating fish and shellfish, and we should not wait for their populations to be exhausted,” Alejandro Olivera, coordinator of the oceans-and-coasts campaign for Greenpeace Mexico, said in a communique Tuesday.

He blamed the National Fisheries Commission, or Conapesca, for the overfishing, since the current fishing policy has put “many” populations at risk and has impoverished the fishing sector by having more and more people working in it while undersea resources are disappearing.

Olivera demanded that Conapesca put order in the industry and said that his organisation is not against fishing, “but we have to give the oceans a little breathing space”.

Greenpeace proposes banning “predatory” fishing methods, such as trawling, “which clears out the sea bottom”, and drift netting, “which catches turtles and marine mammals and other endangered species”.

Other recommendations include avoiding the capture of young specimens that have not reproduced, “as happens in the case of sharks”, according to Olivera.

“The big distributors and the fishing industry can and should also employ sustainable purchasing policies and stop buying species that are included in this document,” he said.

–IANS/EFE

rd/jg