As we walk into the restaurant I’m thinking: how nice is it for once to not have to worry. You know, about saving the planet and all.

The restaurant, Puur eten & drinken (“Pure food & drinks”) in Leiden, seems to assert that its dishes are organic and sustainable.

The waitress brings us a tray of bread, butter and… Tuna salad? Hmm. Probably handline caught skipjack or albacore then, right?

I open the menu. More tuna, as well as redfish and gambas.

Almost all redfish populations (Sebastes marinus and Sebastes mentella) are overfished, or their condition is uncertain. Redfish are particularly sensitive to fishing because they mature very slowly: they start to reproduce only at the age of ten years, and can reach the age of 60. To make matters worse, S. mantella is a deep sea species caught using bottom trawling, which puts centuries-old cold water corals at very high risk of destruction. Information on by-catch is scarce.

There are more problems, but I think you get the picture: of the many kinds of fish a restaurant could choose to serve, redfish is among the least sustainable.

Still, gambas can be far, far worse. GlobalGAP and BAP certificied gambas are on the market, and are certainly a big step in the right direction, but still a long way from being sustainable. Besides, if there is redfish on the menu, these gambas may just as well come from mangrove-clearing aquacultures that rely on large amounts of nasty antibiotics to keep intensive shrimp-farming financially viable.

To be fair, the menu also features farmed Atlantic salmon from Norway, which is quite good as far as aquaculture goes. It shows they’re trying. But not hard enough. And, really, it’s not that hard.

Puur, please live up to your name. Fix this. You’re supposed to be setting an example.