Seafood Watch

"Now I drive my Downeaster Alexa more and more miles from shore every year,

Since they tell me I can't sell no strippers, and there's no luck in swordfishing here.

I was a bayman like my father was before - can't make a living as a bayman anymore.

There ain't much future for a man who works the sea, there ain't no island left for islands like me."

- Billy Joel, Downeaster Alexa

It's a rare day when there isn't at least one story about endangered species somewhere in the news.  Maybe it's about the pandemic of rhino poaching in Africa, or about a more obscure creature, such as the Asian pangolins - both of these are about animals on the far side of world as far as most Americans are concerned, and there isn't much that they could do about it.  Or, maybe the story is about global climate change or wide-scale habitat loss... more local, perhaps, but again, not much that the average person can do, it seems.

Now, what if you were told that you could help save endangered species - ecosystems, even - based on what you have for dinner...

                 
   
As human populations have continued to grow, the struggle to find new sources of food has increased.  The oceans, once considered to be one of nature's most endless resources, are now starting to come up short is feeding our planet.  First we fished out the big fish at the top of the food chain - the tuna, the swordfish, the sharks - and then the medium-sized ones... and then the little ones.  Many of the fish that we catch now would have been scoffed at as bait generations ago.  The phenomena is referred to as "fishing down the food chain"... and there is only so much further down we can go.

The problem of declining fisheries doesn't only impact fish.  Many species being driven to commercial extinction (when there become so few of them that it's no longer worth harvesting them), and whole fishing communities are being forced out of work by the decline of their fisheries.

In the late 1990's, the Monterey Bay Aquarium began its Fishing for Solutions exhibit, calling attention to the plight of the world's fisheries.  It sought to encourage visitors to make environmentally safe choices about what fish and other seafood they purchased.  This program eventually evolved into the Seafood Watch card, a handy little guide that helps users determine where they fall on the range of "Green" ("Best") to "Red" ("Avoid").  The card takes into account factors such as weather the fish or shellfish is wild or farmed, as well as what country (or region of the country) it comes from (some fisheries being more sustainable than others) and the manner in which it is captured.

                

I got a Seafood Watch card years ago (updated a few times since then) and keep meaning to take it to the grocery store with me while I shop for fish.  Of course, I keep on forgetting to do so and, afraid of buying an "Avoid" species, end up not getting anything...  For the more tech savvy folks out there with their fancy iPhones and droids and whatever, there is, of course, an app for it.  I mean, there's an app for everything these days.

Many of the most expensive, most sought-after fishes are the most endangered.  Think swordfish and Chilean sea bass, for instance.  By steering our appetites toward more sustainable options (especially invasive species, such as red lionfish and northern snakehead), we can help reduce the pressure on some of our most endangered wild fisheries, giving them a chance to rebound.

The impact of the average person may be small, but the combined impact can be tremendous.

Learn more about Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sustainable Seafood Watch!

Striped bass, also known as "rock fish", seen here at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  Seafood Watch classifies this species as "Green" for "Best Choice" is caught by hand-line, or "Yellow" for "Good Alternative" if caught by gill-net or pound-net.