Rating*****
Prawn, tiger and King
Penaeus monodon & Litopenaeus vannamei
REASON TO AVOID
A number of fishermen have introduced measures to significantly reduce bycatch in prawn fisheries around the world, measures include turtle exclusion devices and square mesh panels. Unfortunately this information is not generally conveyed to the consumer as no such labelling scheme has yet been devised. Avoid eating warm water prawns trawled from wild stocks. Also there are a number of concerns regarding prawn farming - Mangrove forests can and have been destroyed to create ponds for shrimp or prawn aquaculture with an estimated 38% of mangroves lost to shrimp farming. Farms can also rely on wild prawn stocks as a source of fry and broodstock for the production of larvae, both of which are trawled from the wild, a practice that can have high by-catch of other marine species, historically one of the highest of any fisheries. Wild fish can be depleted to produce food for farmed prawns. Pollution and saltwater from farms can pollute surrounding freshwater bodies and aquifers can be depleted to provide freshwater.
ADVICE / ALTERNATIVES
Only buy farmed prawns from suppliers that can ensure their product is sourced from farms that comply with environmental standards for mangrove protection and production as well as standards that address issues of pollution, water use, broodstock supply, feed sustainability and disease prevention. Organic production addresses most of these issues, Global Aquaculture Alliance and Globalgap certified producers also address some of these issues. Ask your fish supplier about the provenance of your farmed prawns. See Advanced search for advice on making the best choice. Other species to try would be coldwater prawns from the Northeast Arctic or MSC certified langoustine from Loch Torridon. Both of these species appear on our fish to eat list.
The following is a list of fish available to the UK and European consumer which have been given a rating of 5 and which MCS believes are most vulnerable to over-fishing and/or are fished using methods which cause damage to the environment or non-target species. The list is in alphabetical order not order of threat or impact. Select a species to find out more. Click here to download the 2008-2009 version of the MCS Pocket Good Fish Guide (Adobe PDF). A new version of this guide will be available soon.
1.  Brill (from all areas except Baltic Sea)
2.  Chilean seabass or Patagonian toothfish (from all areas except the South Georgia fishery)
3.  Cod, Atlantic (Avoid wildcaught from all areas except Northeast Arctic and Iceland)
4.  Dogfish or spurdog or rock salmon or flake
5.  Dublin Bay Prawn or langoustine or scampi (from Spain and Portugal)
6.  Eel, conger
7.  Eel, European
8.  Grouper
9.  Haddock (from the Faroes and West of Scotland fisheries)
10.  Hake, European (Southern stock)
11.  Halibut, Atlantic (Wild Caught)
12.  Halibut, Greenland
13.  Herring or sild (from West of Scotland, West Ireland, and Great Sole fisheries)
14.  Ling (except handline caught from the Faroes)
15.  Lobster, American (from Southern New England stocks)
16.  Marlin, black
17.  Marlin, blue (from Atlantic longline and purse seine fisheries)
18.  Marlin, Indo-Pacific blue
19.  Marlin, white
20.  Nursehound (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
21.  Orange roughy
22.  Plaice (from the Western Channel, Celtic Sea, Southwest Ireland and West of Ireland and Baltic Sea)
23.  Prawn, tiger and King(except organically farmed, or GAA/GlobalGap certified)
24.  Ray, blonde
25.  Ray, sandy
26.  Ray, shagreen
27.  Ray, smalleyed (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
28.  Ray, thornback or roker (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
29.  Ray, undulate
30.  Salmon, Atlantic (Wild Caught)
31.  Seabass (Pelagic Trawl only)
32.  Shark, mako
33.  Shark, porbeagle
34.  Shark, tope
35.  Skate, common
36.  Skate, longnose
37.  Skate, Norwegain or black
38.  Skate, white
39.  Sole, Dover or common (from Irish Sea)
40.  Starry smoothhound (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
41.  Sturgeon, caviar (Wild Caught)
42.  Swordfish (Longline and Gillnet fisheries in Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central and Western Pacific)
43.  Trout (Brown or Sea, wild caught from Baltic)
44.  Tuna, albacore (Longline and Trawl caught from the North and South Atlantic and the Mediterranean)
45.  Tuna, bigeye
46.  Tuna, northern bluefin
47.  Tuna, Pacific bluefin
48.  Tuna, skipjack (Purse seine from W Atlantic)
49.  Tuna, southern bluefin
50.  Turbot (Wild caught)
51.  Wolffish
   
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