Sustainable Seafood

Over fishing receives much of the popular press and certain fisheries need to be scaled back to allow population recoveries. However, some abundant seafood species, like farm-raised Atlantic salmon, inflict environmental damage. Other species such as mahi-mahi could be excellent choices if they are properly caught (using poles-and-line or trolling instead of longline). Be sure to ask your waiter or the people behind the seafood counter how the seafood was harvested. Even if they do not know (as is often the case), many times the manager has an idea. In your questions, seafood markets know customers care how their food is caught. Putting your money behind sustainable industries is the best way to promote them.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists can help you choose ecologically responsible menu items. This website, with downloadable cards, will guide you to selecting sustainable seafood and avoiding threatened species or fisheries which use environmentally harmful harvesting techniques. What is good or bad about a given seafood species? Enter the species in the Seafood Recommendations search field and learn all about it!

Do you have questions about the identity of your seafood? Is the fish you are buying a premium price truly that species and not some inexpensive substitute? You can have your product tested through DNA Barcoding; more on this technology is on the Molecular Genetics page.

Additional Resources

Marine Seafood Council: certifies sustainable fisheries for both the catch’s population health and low by-catch/environmental impact http://www.msc.org/

Blue Ocean Institute: works to connect people with the ocean through education, interpreting the arts, publishing sustainable seafood guides, and other programs http://www.blueocean.org/home

SeaWeb: advocates for healthy oceans and globally sustainable seafood markets; offers ways you can help the marine environment http://www.seaweb.org/home.php

Cookbooks

Find out why certain seafood are environmentally better choices than others and how to prepare them!

Baldwin, Carole C. and Julie H. Mounts. 2003. One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. pp. 330. http://www.mnh.si.edu/seafood/

Seaver, Barton. 2011. For Cod and Country: Simple, Delicious, Sustainable Cooking. Sterling Epicure, New York, NY. pp. 294. http://www.bartonseaver.org/

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