According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 75% of commercial fish stocks are fully- or over-exploited. Some species are severely overfished and may even be in danger of extinction.

What's more, the fish may be illegal to buy or sell in South Africa, according to the WWF Green Trust and the proponents of the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI).

Continued overfishing is detrimental to everyone involved - from the fish and their ecosystems to the communities whose livelihoods depend on fishing, through to seafood retailers, and you, the consumer.

You can make a difference
So, how can you make a difference? Simply by making more informed choices when buying fish or ordering it in a restaurant.

To make it easier for you, SASSI has condensed the research on the impact of fishing into a chart that divides the species – or similar species in some cases – into one of three colour categories.

Like a traffic light, these are easy enough to understand. Those marked in green means you can generally eat them with a clear conscience because their population numbers are healthy. Orange means they're legal to sell, but if you have a choice you should opt for one of the "green species". Lastly, species marked in red are illegal to buy or sell in South Africa.

Print and cut this chart out, and keep it handy in your wallet:

YES	MAYBE	ILLEGAL or In Danger of Extinction
Anchovy Angelfish (Atlantic pomfret) Bluefish (bluenose) Blueskin (trawl soldier) Blue hottentot Butterfish Chub mackerel (makriel) Dorado (dolphinfish; mahimahi) Gurnard Hake (stockfish) Harder (mullet) - not from estuaries Horse mackerel (maasbanker) Hottentot Jacopever John Dory Monkfish Mussels Octopus Oysters Panga Queen mackerel (Natal snoek) Sand soldier (red tjor-tjor) Santer (soldier) Sardine (pilchard) Snoek South coast rock lobster Squid (calamari, tjokka) Steentjie Tuna (all except bluefin tuna) West coast rock lobster (west coast crayfish) White stumpnose Yellowtail	Abalone - local wild caught Bluefin tuna Carpenter (silverfish; silver) Dageraad Elf (shad) - no-sale in KZN Englishman Geelbek (Cape salmon) King mackerel (couta; cuda) King soldierbream Kingklip Cob (kabeljou, dusky, silver, and squaretail cobs) Langoustines - local trawled Marlins Poenskop (black musselcracker) Prawns - local trawled Red steenbras (copper steenbras) Red stumpnose (Miss Lucy) Rockcods - all except potato and brindle bass Roman (red roman) Scotsman Sharks - all except those on red list Skates and rays Slinger Snappers - all except river snapper Sole Swordfish	Baardman (belman, tasselfish) Banded galjoen Blacktail (dassie, kolstert) Brindle bass Bronze bream Cape stumpnose East coast rock lobster Galjoen Garrick (leervis) John Brown (Janbruin) Kingfishes Knife jaws, Cape and Natal (cuckoo bass; kraaibek) Large-spot pompano (moony, wave garrick) Natal stumpnose (yellowfin bream) Natal wrasse Potato bass Ragged tooth shark River bream (perch) River snapper (rock salmon) Sawfishes Seventy-four Southern pompano Spotted grunter (tiger) Spotted gulley shark Springer (ten pounder) Stonebream Striped cat shark (Pyjama shark) West coast steenbras White musselcracker (brusher, cracker) White steenbras (pignose grunter) Zebra (wildeperd)

Also visit www.wwf.org.za/sassi for more information on how the classification system works.

Take note:
FishMS is an SMS line offered by WWF and SASSI to help consumers limit their impact on the marine environment.

SMS the name of any fish species to 079-499-8795, and you'll be sent info on its conservation status and guidelines on whether to eat it or skip it.

- (Carine van Rooyen, Health24)

- Updated November 2008

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