According to oceans expert Doug Hopkins at Environmental Defense, there is no single source of information to guide consumers to sustainable fish while simultaneously reporting on potential toxins. The FDA’s Food Safety site outlines the specifics about methyl mercury, with the primary problem species being swordfish and shark, both of which are identified as species to avoid for ecological reasons anyway. Mothers & Others also has recently published a guide to eating fish safely.
At the Monterey Bay Aquarium site, consumers can pull up a brochure entitled "Seafood Watch: A Guide for Consumers." The Aquarium’s "Best choices" include Pacific albacore tuna, Alaska halibut, farmed catfish, farmed tilapia, farmed rainbow trout, and mussels, among others. The Aquarium staff asks consumers to "proceed with caution" when buying American lobster, bay scallops, snow crab and wild caught salmon from Washington and Oregon. They recommend avoiding swordfish, monkfish, orange roughy, bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, Chilean sea bass, shark, farmed salmon, and shrimp or prawns either wild-caught or farmed. For more details, visit their Web site.
Similarly, Environmental Defense has developed its own list of fifteen or so best and worst seafood choices. Their best choices list includes anchovies; Atlantic herring; bluefish; catfish; blue, Dungeness, and stone crab; crawfish; Spanish and Atlantic mackerel; Alaska’s wild salmon; tilapia; mahi mahi; certain farmed mussels and oysters; shrimp from Northern Maine; trap-caught spot prawns; Pacific halibut; sardines; and farmed and wild striped bass.
They suggest avoiding American lobster, Atlantic cod and halibut, Chilean sea bass, farmed salmon, grouper, monkfish, orange roughy, Pacific rockfish, shark, skate, snapper, swordfish, and all farmed and most wild shrimp and prawns. They note, "Because production practices vary widely for some types of fish (e.g. tuna), our list is limited to only those fish for which harvesting or farming practices are predominantly environmentally sound or unsound."
The Audubon Society identifies fish by population level. They note with a fish hook symbol quantities of non-targeted fish (bycatch) that are taken up along with each species that is fished. Arrows point to whether the fishery is getting adequate protection and management.
Ecofish is committed to sustainable practices for retail and wholesale consumers. Go to their excellent site for descriptions of their seafood products and explanations telling why and how each species was selected.
For that handful of us who actually prepare food in our own kitchens, the Chefs Collaborative booklet, "Seafood Solutions," is as useful as it is for professional chefs. It poses intelligent questions and suggests wise substitutions. The booklet is available to anyone who joins Chefs Collaborative. You also can access it online through their partner, Environmental Defense. Click on the Oceans program.
The following questions, adapted from "Seafood Solutions," can help consumers in the process of buying or ordering fish.
• Is the fish primarily vegetarian — a more sustainable choice — or is it carnivorous?
• Was the fish farmed? If so, was it raised in polluting netpens? Was it fed antibiotics? Was it genetically engineered?
• If the seafood is wild caught, where was it captured? (Use the sustainable seafood lists noted above to determine if the location is a sustainable fishery.)
• How was the fish harvested? (In general, hook-and-line caught fish are more sustainably harvested than those caught by factory ships that scoop up everything in their path like ocean-going vacuum cleaners.)