Leading article: Small fry

Saturday 19 February 2011 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Less cod, more anchovies.

That's the message from Villy Christensen, of the University of British Columbia, who says that our appetite for large fish is leading to an imbalance in marine ecosystems.

While we deplete the oceans of bigger predatory species such as cod, tuna, swordfish and groupers, the smaller fish that make up their diet are multiplying. The solution, we are told, is to increase our consumption of "forager fish" such as sardines, anchovies, pilchards and herrings.

It makes scientific sense, but it might be a difficult message for us British to act on because Mr Christensen is effectively asking us to pick on the little guys. Plus, these smaller fish have not traditionally been a fixture in our diets in the way they have in other countries.

Still, perhaps we can find a way around that. Whitebait, stargazy pie, Worcestershire sauce: we do have our uses for small, oily fish. So let's do our bit for the balance of the oceans and fill our plates with the little guys.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in