Future of Seafood : Sustainable Eating by Region

Things I learned along the way

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sueinaz

Location: Arizona,
Birthday: February 26

Bio: Your average inconsistent X'er I used to care very much about being a good Republican, but I don't know what that means anymore. I now focus my energies on writing about growing up, the politics of Animal Welfare. I volunteer. I organize fund raisers. I do my best to raise awareness about cruelty, gay penguins, stupid people who keep wild animals as pets and showing funny cat videos. I also write extensively about my family who would probably laugh about this blog, then choke me (but not hard enough for it to be a felony). You can also find me at: http://catsandpolitics.blogspot.com/

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JUNE 25, 2010 9:39AM

Rate: 1 Flag

Recently CNN posted the following insightful interview of Gulf chefs discussing the future of seafood.

Over at the Monterey Bay Aquarium they have been running a program called Seafood Watch since 1999 which assesses sustainable fishing and makes recommendations for how to purchase seafood that has the least environmental impact. Right now, this program has incredible relevancy and is worth learning about.

The Seafood Watch has created pocket buying guides for American consumers based on where they live. For example in Arizona, the recommendations are different from the recommendations in Hawaii. The guides are updated every six months, and cover:

North East http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_NortheastGuide.pdf Central http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_MidwestGuide.pdf West Coast http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_WestCoastGuide.pdf Hawaii http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_HawaiiGuide.pdf Southwest http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_SouthwestGuide.pdfSouth East http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_SoutheastGuide.pdf

Within the guides are lists for types of seafood that are Best, Good Alternatives and foods to Avoid. The best seafoods are the ones that are abundant and have the least contaminants. Alternatives are noted as having some concerns about fishing practices or environment. Seafood to avoid include those foods that are caught/farmed in a way the damages the environment and or contain contaminants like mercury.

The program's message is simple. Everyone can make Ocean-friendly choices about the types of fish they eat. With the Oil Spill continuing to do unknown damage to the environment it's worth evaluating and understanding where our food comes from: what the populations look like right now, are they healthy and are they caught in a way that doesn't disturb the environment.

The Seafood Watch has changed how I choose seafood. I eat Salmon regularly, but now I only buy wild caught Alaskan Salmon. If I'm at a restaurant and it's not specifically on the menu I ask "is this wild or farm raised." Someone invariably knows.

Learn more here: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

Author tags:

open+call, animals, news, environment, oil spill, food/drink, monterey bay aquarium

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Comments

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This is very useful information. Thanks for posting it.

Jeanette DeMain

June 25, 2010 09:48 AM

Environmental Defense Fund also has one of these, for fishing method . There are problems with restaurants lying about the origins of the fish when this becomes an issue (like with Chilean Sea Bass, which isn't even a real fish, but the fancy restaurant name and then they subbed in new fish when that got fished to almost extinction). Good stuff to think about. I hope Arizonans don't have to stick to the bass and bluegill stocked in the lakes- ugh.