A-Z protection guide: what fish may I eat?

Some of Zanzibar’s most delicious dishes include seafood – hardly a surprise on an island. But certain fish species are under threat, even here. Chumbe Island, Zanzibar’s greenest holiday spot, has come up with a practical household seafood guide.

Fish burger with ginger and sesame seeds? Warm-crusted tuna sushi? Chuku Chuku curry (Swahili for tuna) with a touch of turmeric? If that sounds mouth-watering to you, you may have some thinking to do. In Zanzibar and the wider Indian Ocean, as in many maritime areas of the world, certain fish are under threat due to overfishing, coral and mangrove deterioration and – last but not least – by ever-growing demands of restaurants and hotels. 

The bad news: yes, rock lobster is on the red list. (All the better, that we don’t eat this exclusive specialty daily.) Good news: you may go for tuna - if it’s the right one, and in moderation. 

After years of research, Chumbe Island, the world’s only self-sustaining eco-island and marine park off Zanzibar’s west coast, together with the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries in Zanzibar, have published a 30-page seafood guide for consumer orientation. It uses an easy traffic light system to tell the good from the bad. Green means “best choice” for species that produce lots of eggs and grow fast; yellow stands for “choose with caution”, and red means “avoid” to give highly endangered fish populations the chance to recover.

Who owns the fish?

“We”, says the fisheries ministry, at least within a territory of 12 nautical miles around the archipelago. Local fishermen can freely operate in an open-access system along the entire coastline, typically they fish in less than 20–30 meters depth. Dynamite fishing has been forbidden for 14 years. Nonetheless, the pressure on fishing stocks has grown. 

A Zanzibari fisherman recounts in the guide: “We used to catch so much kingfish that we could not even sell all of them on the market. For those that were not sold we cut them into small pieces and dried them. Nowadays dried kingfish is no longer available because it is directly sold to restaurants and hotels.” An octopus fisher remarks: “The ocean has changed. We used to stop fishing for octopus during a certain time of the year. But now fishermen go out every day, morning, afternoon and at night.” 

How do consumers know if a tuna displayed at Darajani market or at the new fish market in Malindi (well worth a visit, by the way) is a bluefin or yellowfin? Bluefin is much pricier and fatter. and some say, rarely offered here. In supermarkets when in doubt look for labels and certifications like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to guide your decisions. 

Information: Full guide available on the website chumbeisland.com.