Start the Year Off Right: Sustainable Fish

Here is an update to an older post I made at least 2 years ago regarding the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s most recent sustainable seafood guide.

On their website, you can find the most recent sustainable information on all kinds of fish and seafood. It’ll tell you about how the fish and seafood is farmed, if it’s overfished, if it’s a good fish choice, etc. They also have a section on sushi.

Or you can download their pocket guide to take with you to the grocery store and have it on reference at all times – works great for deciphering restaurant menus when you go out to eat.

Get the Monterey Bay Aquarium Fish and Seafood Pocket Guides based on region at their site

Get the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sushi Pocket Guide at their site

Great Fish Buying Tip

In the most recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine (Feb 2009), they have a really great article on 50 Easy Ways to Eat Green.

What I discovered is Text Fishphone – it’s utterly brilliant! It’s the easiest way to find out what fish at your local grocery store is good for you (mercury levels, farming methods) and good for the environment (sustainable, farming methods). And it’s so simple: text 30644 and enter FISH, followed by the name of the fish you want to buy. It’ll return a text telling you if it’s a good one or not.

CSA Pick Up Today – lookin’ mighty fine

Can’t wait to pick up our Harmony Valley Farm CSA this week. Everything looks amazing, as usual.

Veggie Box
Carrots
Yellow Onions
Garlic
Zucchini or Summer Squash
Cucumber
Arugula or Saute Mix
Potatoes
Dill
Fennel
Amaranth
Melon or raspberries
Eggplant
Italia Pepper

Fruit Box
Blueberries
Champagne Grapes
Hass Avocado
Flavor King Pluots
O’Henry Peaches
Bartlett Pears
Summer Grand Nectarines

All you can catch Maine lobster

This is genius. Two brothers in Maine have established a business called “Catch a Piece of Maine” which allows people to become a partner and receive all the lobsters caught in a lobster trap in one year – all for the mere cost of $2,995.

These partners can also check out how their lobster trap is performing throughout the year by checking in online.

They even tout how it supports local fishermen:

Catch a Piece of Maine’s community supported fishery model directly supports lobsterman and the working waterfront of Maine. Your support allows lobstermen to receive a premium for their product at a time when external economic factors make it hard to make a living from the sea.

Find out if you’re living a sustainable life

Have you played the Consumer Consequences interactive game on Minnesota Public Radio’s website?

You can find out what the world would be like if everyone lived like you…

“Nice Planet…Want to Share?

The Earth couldn’t support its 6.6 billion residents if everyone lived like a typical American. Consumer Consequences will tell you how many planets it would take to support your lifestyle on a planetary scale and provide some ideas for making your ‘footprint’ a little smaller.” 

What does my footprint look like? If everyone on the planet lived like I live, then we’d need THREE planets. Whoa. I spoke to a friend yesterday who said she’d need 6 planets, so I guess I’m doing alright.

However, it seems that I need to cut down on my coffee addiction (wah wah) and start using my car less.

The push to move away from plastic bags

I’ve been reading a lot lately about people advocating for not using plastic bags. I wrote a post about this awhile ago, but I’m going to comment again because I found some great places to purchase cool grocery bags. And hey, these can be used for ANYTHING- not just groceries!

delight.com sells Envirosax for $34.50. This is the option I went for. They’re stylish, they wrap up and snap up small enough to keep in your purse or glovebox, and they’re pretty inexpensive. This includes a set of 5. I’ve given 2 to my sister to keep in her car too.

One other thing I love about these bags….they were delivered promptly in the mail with a handwritten thank you note. I mean, c’mon! No one does that anymore! I got all warm and fuzzy when I saw it.

Some other options out there:

magic-pony.com

blueq.com

bringyourownbag.com – and this one is organic cotton. isn’t this great? makes you want to use this at places other than just the grocery store, huh?

perpetualkid.com

  reusablebags.com – these nifty produce bags are a great alternative to loading up on plastic bags for single produce items. heck, i don’t use bags for any of my produce so i don’t have to worry about this at all.
do you have a favorite? please share your links for cool non-plastic grocery shoppers.

Australis Aquaculture

Hi all- just got a really great comment from Alejandro Levins, an employee over at Australis Aquaculture, in response to What Fish to Eat: Being Socially Responsible. Sounds like someone knows what’s going on and doing something about it. Thanks!

I’d just like to highlight what he said:

“I work with a company (Australis Aquaculture) that is, as far as I know, the only US-based Barramundi farm. They are definitely the largest and most environmentally friendly one–probably in the world. They farm Barramundi in an indoor fish farm that recirculates (reuses) 99.9% of its water, and produces very little waste. It’s very cool. And the fish they produce a fish with “no mercury, hormones or antibiotics” according to their website.

Their fish is in rather high demand, as you can imagine, but they continue to ramp up production and are now shipping to many parts of the country. Barramundi is mostly in high-end restuarants at this point, but Australis is starting to sell to Whole Foods markets and other grocery stores.”

and point you all in the direction to their site.

As my friend said in response to Alejandro’s comment: “I love conscious people!”

What Fish to Eat – being socially responsible

I recently downloaded the Shedd Aquarium’s 2007 Seafood Wallet Guide. I’m about to print it out and I suggest you do the same. You can carry it with you when you’re grocery shopping or out for dinner.

This is a great reminder to everyone that one person can make a difference. I choose to do this by voting with my money (seeing that voting at the ballot is somewhat of a waste of time).

The Seafood Wallet Guide groups fish into 3 categories: Best Choices, Good Alternatives, and Avoid – based on two criteria:

1. The fish is high in toxins, such as mercury

and/or

2. The fish is involved in some environmentally unsafe practice, such as overfishing or harming other ecosystems

> Download the Shedd Aquarium Seafood Wallet Guide (PDF – 48KB)

Ocean’s Alive is also an excellent resource

I’ve also included the list here for you: (*= limit consumption due to concerns about murcury or other contaminant)

BEST CHOICES
These are your best seafood choices! These fish are abundant, well-managed and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.
Barramundi (US farmed) – see Australis Aquaculture
Catfish (US farmed)
Clams (farmed)
Crab: Dungeness
Crab: Snow (Canada)
Crab: Stone
Halibut: Pacific
Lobster: Spiny (US)
Mussels (farmed)
Oysters (farmed)
Pollock (wild-caught from Alaska)
Salmon (wild-caught from Alaska)
Sardines
Scallops: Bay (farmed)
Shrimp (trap-caught)
Striped Bass (farmed or wild caught*)
Sturgeon (farmed)
Tilapia (US farmed)
Trout: Rainbow (farmed)
Tuna: Albacore (US & BC troll/pole-caught)
Tuna: Skipjack (troll/pole-caught)

GOOD ALTERNATIVES
These are good alternatives when the “best choices” aren’t available. There are, however, some concerns with how they are fished or farmed, or with the health of their habitats due to other human impacts.
Clams (wild-caught)
Cod: Pacific
Crab: Blue*, King (Alaska), Snow (US)
Crab: Imitation / Surimi
Flounder: Summer / Fluke
Lobster: American / Maine
Mahi Mahi / Dolphinfish / Dorado (US)
Oysters (wild-caught*)
Scallops: Bay
Scallops: Sea (Northeast and Canada)
Shrimp (US farmed or wild-caught)
Snapper: Gray / Lane / Mutton / Yellowtail (US)
Soles: Pacific
Squid
Swordfish (US*)
Tuna: Albacore, Bigeye, Yellowfin (troll/pole-caught*)
Tuna: canned light
Tuna: canned white / Albacore*

AVOID
Avoide these fish, at least for now. They come from sources that are overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.
Caviar (imported wild-caught)
Chilean Seabass / Toothfish*
Cod: Atlantic
Crab: King (imported)
Flounder: Atlantic
Groupers*
Halibut: Atlantic
Mahi Mahi / Dolphinfish / Dorado (imported)
Monkfish
Orange Roughy*
Rockfish: Pacific*
Salmon (farmed*, including Atlantic)
Sharks*
Shrimp (imported farmed or trawl-caught)
Snapper: Red*
Soles: Atlantic
Sturgeon (imported farmed* or wild-caught*)
Swordfish (imported*)
Tuna: Albacore, Bigeye, Yellowfin (longline-caught*)
Tuna: Bluefin*