Abu Dhabi: The Emirates Wildlife Society - WWF (EWS-WWF) is searching for the best sustainable seafood recipes as part of its campaign to raise awareness on UAE's dwindling fish stocks.

Officials have urged residents, amateurs as well as professional chefs to take part in the contest that comes to a close on October 15.

The Sustainable Fish Dish Challenge is part of the Choose Wisely campaign launched by EWS-WWF in April, after studies showed that high demand in the UAE for seafood has resulted in a noticeable decline of 80 per cent of popular fish varieties over the last three decades. Seafood recipes using sustainable fish varieties in the UAE should be posted online with pictures at www.choosewisely.ae , after which they will be rated by visitors.

Cookbook

The highest rated recipes will win the challenge and the winning recipes will be featured in the UAE sustainable fish dish cookbook.

The list of sustainable fish varieties can be looked up using the EWS-WWF's consumer guide, which classifies 19 species of local fish into three categories according to their status. The first category consists of popular fish species that are heavily overfished while the second consists of those species which are exploited within sustainable levels.

The third category presents stock which are not experiencing heavy fishing pressure, and these are species the authorities hope to popularise amongst the consumers. The guide is available online and in print from EWS-WWF and at various locations.

"We hope to empower the consumers with information about the status of these local valuable species, hoping to inspire them to choose wisely", Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director of EWS-WWF said at the launch of the campaign, in April.

Recent studies by the EWS-WWF showed that 66 per cent of the UAE population eats fish at least once a week. Hamour, a highly favoured fish in the UAE, is being overfished 7 times beyond its sustainable level, with a decline of 87-92 per cent since 1978, putting it at the top of the overfished species list.

In the UAE, 60 per cent of the total catch is made up of species that are fished beyond sustainable levels.

The main factors leading to the depletion have been identified as high demand leading to higher fishing effort, catching fish before they are allowed to reproduce and loss of habitat due to coastal development.

Entries

Submit your sustainable seafood recipe at www.choosewisely.ae