Sustainable seafood species list
Malaysia’s sustainable seafood guide, a pocket-sized, colour coded booklet features over 50 common/popular Malaysian seafood species. To help you make the right choice, fish species are grouped into 3 categories:
Recommended :
Species in this category represent the best choices of seafood that can be eaten. They are caught using fishing gears which are not detrimental to the marine environment and resources. Farmed species in this category are reared using responsible management practices that do not damage the marine environment.
Think Twice :
Only eat these species occasionally, if recommended options are not available. Wild-caught species in this category are heavily targeted due to popular demand and they can only be found in certain habitats, thus they are at risk of becoming unsustainable. Farmed species are grown in aquaculture farms that are not managed responsibly, particularly the sourcing of feed for these species, disposal of waste and the location of the farms.
Avoid :
Refrain from eating species from this section, as they are overfished, caught or farmed using methods that are damaging to the environment and the overall fishery is not managed sustainably. For example, trawl nets catch all sorts of species indiscriminately and actually scrape the bottom of the ocean, damaging the corals and other marine life.
Click here to view Species list
| Recommended | Think Twice | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Lala clam (Peninsular Malaysia, Hand picking) | Longtail shad (Malaysia, Drift gillnet) | Silver pomfret (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Anchovies (Malaysia, Purse-seine, Lift net) | Carpet clam (Peninsular Malaysia, Dredger) | Black Pomfret (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Yellow banded scad (East coast PM & Sabah, Purse-seine) | Sea cucumber (Malaysia, Hand-picking) | Ray (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Oval squid (Peninsular Malaysia, Trap) | John's snapper (West coast PM & Sabah, Hook & line) | Threadfin breams (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Longfin grey mullet (Malaysia, Drift gillnet) | Fourfinger threadfin (West coast PM, Bottom gillnet) | Dorab wolf-herring (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Tuna (Malaysia, Purse-seine, Drift net) | Flower crab (West coast PM, Bottom gillnet) | Flounder (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Indian mackerel (Malaysia, Purse-seine, Drift net) | Red snapper (East coast PM & Sabah, Hook & line) | Silver Sillago (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Spanish mackerel (Malaysia, Drift gillnet, Hook & line) | Banana prawn (Malaysia, Bottom gillnet) | Indian squid (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Hard-tail scad (Malaysia, Purse-seine, Drift net) | Coral grouper (Sabah & Sarawak, Trap) | Needle cuttlefish (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Mangrove red snapper (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage, Pond) | Seabass (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) | Mud-spiny lobster (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Humpback grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) | Tiger prawn (Peninsular Malaysia, Pond) | Slipper lobster (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Giant grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) | White-leg prawn (Peninsular Malaysia, Pond) | Humphead wrasse (Sabah, Cynide) |
| Snubnose pompano (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) | Brown-marble grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) | Mantis shrimp (Malaysia, Trawl) |
| Blood cockle (Peninsular Malaysia, Bottom culture) | Bigeye trevally (Malaysia, Trawl) | |
| Green mussel (Peninsular Malaysia, Rack) | Brownstripe red snapper (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | |
| Oysters (Peninsular Malaysia, Rack) | Coral trout (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | |
| Mud crab (Peninsular Malaysia, Pond) | Duskytail grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | |
| Orange-spotted grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | ||
| Malabar grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | ||
| Sixbar grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Trawl) | ||
| Orange-spotted grouper (Peninsular Malaysia, Cage) |
MSC Certified
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a world renowned certification programme for wild-caught seafood. The MSC certification aims at establishing environmental standards for sustainability and chain of custody standards for traceability. Their blue ecolabel identifies wild fisheries that are certified as sustainable by MSC. These species are certified as having been caught responsibly from fisheries that meet MSC’s strict environmental standard and are traceable to the fishery of origin. Whenever possible, please ask for MSC certified seafood from your supermarkets. For more information on MSC, please visit www.msc.org
Click here to view Species list
| MSC certified | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pacific Salmon (Alaska, US, Gillnet, Purse-seine) | ||
| Alaskan Pollock (Alaska, US, Trawl) | ||
| Hake (South Africa, Trawl) | ||
| Ben Tre Clam (Vietnam, Hand-picking) | ||
| Atlantic Cod (North East Artic, Longline) | ||
| Pacific Cod (Alaska, US, Trawl, Longline) | ||
| Rock lobster (Western Australia, Trap) |