Sustainable Seafood

In lieu of a recipe, today I would like to talk about sustainable seafood, or rather, the lack thereof. Take a second to head towards Monterey Bay Aquarium's great seafood watch website.

Many of our favorite fish are in danger of becoming extinct and yet you can still buy them at your local grocery store, and, perhaps even worse, they are prized at the best restaurants as delicacies without a second thought. If we do not act very quickly, and on a large scale, we will lose them forever. Not only will this mean you no longer get to enjoy your fancy tuna sushi, but we will also be destroying a fellow species and undermining the delicate ecosystem that exists in our oceans.

Browse the website. Download the handy pocket guide. Or direct your phone to their mobile site (seafoodwatch.org) when you are at a restaurant or a grocery store and make sure your fish isn't flagged red before purchasing it. The site will also give you handy recommendations for a similar fish to replace the one that is in serious danger. And to make it even easier, I'm posting right here some of the most commonly consumed fish which are about to be lost to us forever:

Chilean Seabass
Cod (Atlantic and Pacific)
King Crab (imported)
Flounder (Atlantic)
Halibut (Atlantic, California)
Mahi Mahi (imported longline)
Salmon (farmed)
Red Snapper
Tilapia (China)
Tuna (Albacore except Hawaii Longline, Bigeye except US Atlantic longline, Bluefin, Skipjack imported longline, Tongol, Yellowfin longline, Yellowtail Australia and Japan farmed)

Now keep in mind that just because a fish appears above does not mean you cannot enjoy it - there are OTHER varieties for many of these. Take Tuna. While this is one of the most endangered fish out there and many of the most prized varieties listed above are severely endangered, there are others that are okay (US Atlantic yellowfin, US Atlantic bigeye, US pacific Albacore.) Or while Chinese farmed Tilapia is off limits, the American farmed Tilapia is plentiful.

Look up your fish and know what you are buying and you may just help save a species. We all have smart phones so bookmark the website - we have no excuse to do otherwise. And when you go to a restaurant? Well, ask. If we are all asking at restaurants for sustainable seafood chefs will get the idea and will start stocking sustainable fish to start with. And in the end, that leaves all of us in a better place and a better world.