Green | July 17, 2009 | Comment on this video (14)

WANTED! Your eco-tips on how to go about choosing sustainable seafood

leahl
We're testing out a segment for the new live streaming green show (launching on August 5th), and need your tips on how you go about choosing sustainable fish!! Text works, webcams are more fun to watch.
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14 comments // WANTED! Your eco-tips on how to go about choosing sustainable seafood // Video

  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
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    • Seafood purveyors who offer up only sustainable fish species.

      In 1994, Henry and Lisa Lovejoy smelled something fishy when they saw juvenile tuna for sale at a giant seafood market in Japan. The couple was a firsthand witness to one of the symptoms of overfishing: the catch of fish before they’ve had a chance to breed. Scientists say that practice could slash the species in the world’s commercial hauls 90 percent by 2048. Dismayed, the Lovejoys, who owned a live-lobster export company, considered abandoning industrial fishing altogether.

      Instead, Henry drew up a plan for EcoFish, a sustainable fish-distribution company that sells only species identified by conservation scientists as hearty enough to replenish their numbers. The New Hampshire–based company patronizes fisheries from Ecuador to Alaska whose methods don’t damage surrounding habitats and that sell fish caught using a hook and line, rather than with trawls that scoop up “bycatch” (coral, dolphins, and other sea life that aren’t meant to be caught but account for a quarter of fishing hauls).

      When the Lovejoys launched EcoFish a decade ago, they sold just two species. Today they sell more than a dozen. “Ten years ago we’d go into a store and mention sustainable seafood and get a blank stare; now it’s very well recognized,” Henry says, noting that Henry & Lisa’s Natural Seafood line is carried by 3,500 grocery stores and more than 150 restaurants across the United States. Seafood Choices Alliance, which promotes conservation in the fishing industry, gave EcoFish its “seafood champion” award in 2006, lauding the company’s example of corporate sustainability and traceability.

      “Our mission is to sniff out the ones doing it the right way, bring them to market, pay them a premium, and tell their story,” Henry says. “You hope with a successful business model, the guy next door will say, ‘it makes financial sense to me to do it the right way.’”

      Road map to harmony
      http://awesome.good.is/ecosystem/#/get-started

    • 2 years ago
  • pjacobs51
    • 0
      pjacobs51  
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    • Not to far from here (Springfield, MO) is the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, which produces 1,125,000 catchable trout annually. It has been in operation since 1957. It stocks five of the local lakes, it keeps the fishermen coming in from all over the country, and is also a tourist attraction located near Branson, MO.

      It seems to be a very beneficial operation, the fish are healthy, and it's great for the local economy. I know it won't feed the world, but every little bit helps.

    • 2 years ago
  • jefftego
  • jefftego
    • 0
      jefftego  

    • Stay away from farm raised salmon. First, farm raised has been found to have roughly 10 times more PCBs, dioxins and pesticide residues as wild. Second, many of the ocean pens used for farm raised salmon are placed along migration routes for wild salmon. The contamination, particularly sea lice, from the farm pens impacts the wild salmon and is absolutely decimating the wild population in many areas.

      Among those impacted are the wild chinook salmon, whose populations are in steep decline. Chinook salmon are the primary source of food for orcas in the pacific northwest. As a result, the resident orca pods off of Washington state and British Columbia are now listed as endangered because their populations are falling as orcas are found to be suffering from malnutrition and starvation. The US consumption of farm raised salmon is driving the industry. Many experts believe the southern resident pods in the Puget Sound area are in major trouble as thier food supply is declining rapidly and this is why they have been listed as endangered.

      http://www.adopt-a-fry.org/?page_id=21

    • 2 years ago
  • glueandglitter
  • Denica_Cassandra
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      Denica_Cassandra  
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    • Like kimlaama said, The Monterey Bay Aquarium in CA would give out sustainable pamphlets to the tourists to tell them which fish was the best environmental choice @ the time, now with your phone woohoo.

      I think that checking out the types of fish that are plentiful on the market (and in the water @ the time) lets you know you made a good choice. I only eat fish for "meat" so this is a cool topic! The WWF says sustainable (clean) fish farms.

    • 2 years ago
  • yesindeed
  • idealist
  • LarzNero
    • 0
      LarzNero  

    • Hey leahl, thanks for the invite to comment. I have a card in my wallet that tells what fish is best to eat to avoid mercury, etc. So I avoid tuna as much as possible. Also, it recommended avoiding salmon for environmental reasons since salmon is a predator and is higher on the food chain. Unfortunately, I just ate salmon tonight and I barely reference the card, but those are my fish-related consumption tips. Not much I know.

      I do often wish I lived nearer a fresh seafood market that would be ideal.

    • 2 years ago
  • mgreener
  • kimlaama
    • 0
      kimlaama  
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    • I was stoked to find that Monterey Bay has a mobile Seafood Watch guide for the iPhone. When I eat out, I often forget to ask where they get their fish, but it's nice to have this handy while I'm out.

    • 2 years ago
  • mgreener
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • Oh and another thing. Our inland fisheries are all poisoned with Mercury and acid rain, so most of our freshwater fish are poisonous.

      Thanks Midwestern USA.

      Maine-- America's air pollution urinal.

    • 2 years ago
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • I live in Maine, where everybody wants their lobster from.

      However bountiful the ocean supposedly is here, I still avoid fish altogether. We don't know enough about marine ecology to make well informed decisions about what fish or how much fish is okay to eat-- and even the scientists who protect our fisheries here in Maine will admit that it is a lot of guess work.

      This is largely due to the fact that it's nearly impossible to observe of wild populations, and how they interact with one another, in any meaningful way.

      Most commercial fishing is tantamount to clearcutting acres of a forest, but under the ocean. This is done through massive dragnets, and giant long lined hooks.

      If you ARE going eat fish, get it at the docks from the local dude with the boat and the small thrownet.

      If you live in Kansas, don't eat fish.

    • 2 years ago
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