Eating Well...Environmentally Well

I post a lot of fish recipes here. Think not? Just search for them and see what you find. Eating fish makes me feel good. Makes me feel healthy. And usually makes me feel like I'm doing the "right" thing. Even though I'm a declared omnivore, you can turn someone off of beef by mentioning the horrors of a slaughterhouse. Even freak a person out about chicken by pointing out the poor birds' miserable lives spent in cramped conditions before they are inhumanely slaughtered.

But fish is different, right? It conjures up visions of bare-chested men dragging nets through the pristine waters of the sea. There are millions, if not billions, of fish in the sea, so humans can't possibly have a negative impact.

Wrong.

I was peripherally aware of the negative impact of fishing a couple years ago when I noticed a note at my local Whole Foods explaining why they wouldn't sell sea bass. Things were further brought home when I saw Sharkwater at the AFI DALLAS International Film Festival. It won the HDNet Award and graphically shows what's happening to the oceans thanks to the irresponsible overfishing of shark and other fish. Certainly can make one sit up and take notice.

Made ME take notice of Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch. They publish guides for every region of the United States telling you what seafoods to buy and what to avoid. For example, shrimp. Those from the United States, both farmed or wild-caught are ok. But stay away from those that are imported. If you want cod, buy stuff from Alaska and not from the Atlantic. And we still need to avoid sea bass altogether.

Check out their website. Print out a guide and take it with you when you're grocery shopping. Using it to help you make your decisions just might be a small, but important contribution to keeping our oceans vital and productive.