Ditch the dodgy eco-labels

A GROWING number of supermarkets and restaurants proudly declare that the fish they sell is “sustainable” or “responsibly sourced”. This is a welcome sign that consumers are exercising their marketplace muscle to stop threatened species ending up on their plates. The trouble is that no consensus exists over what these labels mean – making it hard for consumers to distinguish genuine conservation efforts from dubious practices that hide behind ambiguous phraseology (see “Beware of ‘bluewash’: Which fish should you buy?”). The issue of declining fish stocks is too important to allow these initiatives to be undermined by specious or exaggerated…