Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Here's What's Fishy

The fact is, over at Green Parenting, that I have one of three PhD exams coming up March 20th and Raj is working double time. So for the next couple of weeks our posts will be lite...

In the meantime I have lifted the following information from Co-Op America's site because I thought it was interesting enough to repeat. We are on and off vegetarians...but when we are eating fish, I always wonder what's the right fish.

Now I know.

And if you go to Co-Op America's site you can print this out on a wallet sized list so that if you forget it won't matter.

"Overview of the Safe, Sustainable Seafood Guide
(T = High Toxin Levels, E = Environmental Issues)

Safe to Eat

Anchovies, Calamari, Clams, Crawfish, Dungeness crab, Fish sticks, Flounder (summer), Haddock, Hake, Herring, King crab, Lobster (spiny/rock), Mid-Atlantic blue crab, Northern shirmp (US-farmed), Oysters, Alaskan salmon (wild), Perch, White shrimp (US-farmed), Sardines, Bay scallops (farmed), Sole, Spot prawn, Stone crab, Tilapia, Whitefish

Caution (Limit to One Serving Per Month)

Blue mussel (T), Bluefish (T)*, Bonito (T)*, Channel (wild) catfish (T), Cod (except Atlantic) (T), Eastern oyster (T), Gulf Coast blue crab (T), Lake trout (T)*, Lake white fish (T), Mahi-mahi (T), Pollock (T), Porgy (T)*, Rockfish (T)*

Avoid

Catfish (farmed) (T), Caviar (wild) (E), Chilean sea bass/toothfish (E), Cod (Atlantic) (T, E), Grouper (E), Gulf Coast Oysters (T), Halibut (T, E), King mackerel (T), Largemouth bass (T), Marlin (T), Monkfish (E), Orange Roughy (T, E), Pike (T), Pacific rockfish/rock cod (E), Salmon (Great Lakes) (T), Salmon (Atlantic and most farmed) (T, E), Sea bass (T), Shark (T, E), Shrimp (wild, imported) (E), Snapper (T*, E), Sturgeon (wild) (E), Swordfish (T), Tilefish (T), Tuna (canned) (T), Tuna steaks (T, E), Walleye (T), White croaker (T)"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's best to avoid _ALL_ fish & sea food products. The OVERFISHING going on is destroying thousands of species and killing our oceans. The oceans need to repopulate & we need to find a way to clean the poisons from the seas.

Anonymous said...

Actually, all fisheries in Alaska are regulated down to the minute, with officials on all large boats to monitor any and all bycatch. It is true that any fishing is interfering with mother nature, but we have very well-monitored fisheries in Alaska. I fish for salmon in Bristol Bay, and we are not even capable of overfishing simply due to the limited processing capacity in the region. Of course, the management of the fishery would never allow for it, anyway. One area with sketchy fishing controls is Russia. While most things will not be labeled as coming from Russia, any too-good-to-be-true prices on seafood such as King Crab is most likely illegally caught in Russia. Also, beware of farmed fish, which are similar to cities in their concentrated waste and disease that spreads to the rest of the ocean. Not to mention that at least for farmed salmon, it takes more to feed the fish than is actually produced, so there is an overall net loss. Farmed shrimp is one exception to this rule. Here's a list of products whose fisheries have been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council: http://eng.msc.org/. Keep in mind that like the organic label, some fisheries meet all of the sustainability qualifications but just cannot afford the certification and thus are not on this list.