A recent op-ed piece, “A Fish Story” in the New York Times implies that the natural products industry may be partially to blame for the one of the most pressing environmental issues of our day – the fragility of ocean ecosystems.
In the article, Paul Greenberg writes,
“The deal with fish oil, I found out, is that a considerable portion of it comes from a creature upon which the entire Atlantic coastal ecosystem relies, a big-headed, smelly, foot-long member of the herring family called menhaden, which a recent book identifies in its title as “The Most Important Fish in the Sea.”
According to Greenberg, menhaden are being over-fished due to their abundance and the low-cost to process them into a great many products.
But menhaden are entering the final losing phases of a century-and-a-half fight for survival that began when humans started turning huge schools into fertilizer and lamp oil. Once petroleum-based oils replaced menhaden oil in lamps, trillions of menhaden were ground into feed for hogs, chickens and pets. Today, hundreds of millions of pounds of them are converted into lipstick, salmon feed, paint, “buttery spread,” salad dressing and, yes, some of those omega-3 supplements you have been forcing on your children. All of these products can be made with more environmentally benign substitutes, but menhaden are still used in great (though declining) numbers because they can be caught and processed cheaply.
So what? Well, the overfishing of menhaden is an issue for a couple reasons. First, menhaden help clean the water. Secondly, they appear to form the foundation of the Atlantic Coast’s marine food chain. Over fish these guys and you might just endanger the oceanic balance of life.
I can’t argue with Mr. Greenberg. This is a very important issue and I’m glad he wrote the article. However, as someone who both takes and promotes the use of fish oil, I also wanted to point out there are quite a few companies that offer sustainably caught fish. No company has done more to promote this fact than New Chapter with their Wholemega fish oil product.
Wholemega comes from 100% sustainably wild-caught Alaskan salmon and in my opinion is one of, if not the best, fish oil supplements available. If you’re interested you can find Wholemega on our e-com webite here. For more information listen in on my podcast with Jen Luse, A WHOLE new chapter in fish oil or check out Wholemega on YouTube.
A WHOLE new chapter in fish oil
