Sustainable Seafood Man - Beatrice the Biologist

In case you haven’t heard, we’re overfishing our oceans. I blame the common saying that there are “plenty of fish in the sea.”

Past generations have considered our oceans an absolutely limitless bounty of seafood. No one could think that we humans could impact an ecosystem as large as the ocean. But the ocean is a closed system just like a pond is. There is indeed a limit, sir.

Just like you may be conscious of what foods are best bought in organic varieties, you also need to keep in mind what seafoods are safe and sustainably fished, as well as what you need to avoid so that you don’t eat seafood like a jerkface.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes a list of the best and worst seafood choices. It’s called Seafood Watch.

Here is some of the sustainable seafood that awesome people eat:
Alaskan wild salmon
Dungeness crab
Farmed mussels
U.S. pole-fished tuna (albacore, skipjack, and yellowfin)

Here are a few of the horrible choices that only jerkfaces eat:
Imported caviar
Chilean seabass
Imported king crab
Farmed salmon
Imported shrimp
Any kind of shark

If you approach the supermarket seafood counter, read the labels, and ask the guy in the apron. Read frozen seafood packaging. At restaurants, ask where the seafood comes from. Control thine destiny. Know who you’re eating. Because until we get a superhero named Sustainable Seafood Man who sucker punches people before they bite into unsustainable seafood, we’re going to have to regulate ourselves.

So to make sure you’re not eating seafood like a jerkface, print a seafood pocket guide (specific for your region) or download the smart phone app. Seriously. Do it.

Here are all the guides available at Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch:
Sushi Guide
National Guide
West Coast Guide
Southwest Guide
Hawaii Guide
Central U.S. Guide
Southeast Guide
Northeast Guide

If you won’t do it for me, do it for him.