So should I eat anchovies and sardines or not?

"It adds something unique to all sorts of dishes, from salads to meat, to other fish and eggs, and has done for a long time. Anchovies have been an important part of our diet since Greco-Roman times". Rowley Leigh

Last night whilst enjoying our younger grandson's birthday party at this favourite pizza place the conversation turned to anchovies - like them or not. Well that's how the conversation started before my younger son said we should not eat them at all because they were overfished and therefore the ecological balance was being destroyed. So I thought I would look into it, because I love anchovies and like chef Rowley Leigh I don't think there is really a substitute. But I also want to do the right thing by the environment so I am a little troubled.

Having now done my, admittedly minimal research, I am still confused. There are greenie sites that will, of course say it's all doom and gloom and there are foodie and health sites that say you should eat more because they are delicious and because, being an oily fish they are good for you. Lots of omega-3. I also found scientific sounding sites that seemed to come to opposite conclusions, so I am bemused.

Take this statement - admittedly applying to the UK, but still - very alarming

"29% of the UK’s fishing quota is owned by five families, all of whom feature on the Sunday Times Rich List. A single Dutch multinational, operating a vast fishing ship, holds a further 24% of the English quota. The smallest boats – less than 10 metres long – comprise 79% of the fleet, but are entitled to catch just 2% of the fish." Greenpeace

Admittedly we are talking about fish in general here, but it is truly alarming. I also found elsewhere - I think the source was one of the UN's bodies - that said that around 50% of the world's fish supply of food came from aquaculture and that this aquaculture used anchovies and sardines to feed their fish. Take away the small fish and the larger predators, which include birds and other animals as well as larger fish will have nothing to eat. On the other hand there is a counter argument that says that if the larger fish are overfished, which they are, then you have an oversupply of the smaller fish and counter intuitively this somehow leads to larger populations of larger fish migrating into the open seas out of reserves. Well I'm not quite sure of that one now, but the argument did go something like that.

I also found a NSW report that said that anchovies were not thought to be in danger of overfishing - but then I'm not sure how old the report was, and also I'm not sure how thorough their research was. It all seemed a bit perfunctory.

And yes anchovies are found around the world in large numbers in coastal waters, and in bays and estuaries - in temperate waters, not hot or cold ones. For there are lots of different species (if that's the right term).

So I don't really know. And in spite of there being Australian anchovies I can only assume that the catches are used as feed for the farmed fish we eat, because virtually all of the anchovies you buy in the supermarket come from overseas - Spain mostly I think, in spite of a ban on anchovy fishing in the Bay of Biscay. The Spanish anchovies must come from the Mediterranean.

So go figure. I do love them but I don't consume a lot of them. My current jar of anchovies is now pretty old. They don't go off though.