• Question: What fish are most commonly caught?

    Asked by anon-175964 to Jenny on 13 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Jenny Shepperson

      Jenny Shepperson answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      Globally, anchovies have been the most commonly caught fish, but in recent years less have been caught, meaning that similar amounts of anchovies, pollock, and skipjack tuna have been caught – about 3 million tonnes of each per year!
      The most common species caught in the UK are mackerel – 115,000 tonnes per year!

Comments

  • Photo: Ali

    Ali commented on :

    Jenny – is it bad that these fish are commonly caught? I guess it’s because that’s what people like eating? But is it a bad thing?

  • Photo: Jenny

    Jenny commented on :

    They are probably most commonly caught because they are the most abundant? It’s often not exclusively ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to catch or eat a particular type of fish though – it depends how they were caught and where from. The same type of fish in one country might be overfished, but in another it might not be overfished. Also, some types of fishing cause more harm to the environment than others, so it also depends how they are caught.
    For example, if you look at pollock on the Marine Conservation Societies ‘Good fish guide’, if it’s been caught by pelagic trawl (a type of fishing gear that is dragged through the water) in the Atlantic Sea then it’s an okay choice to eat – but if it was caught in the Western Bering Sea you should avoid it!
    Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as one type is good and one type is bad!
    https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search?name=pollock