I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU TO.....
PICK A NEW "BEST CHOICE" FISH AND GIVE IT A TRY!
I double dog dare you to pick a new “Best Choice” fish and give it a try.
Seafood Watch is an organization associated with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which maintains a set of recommendations for seafood. They share this with the public at no charge at www.seafoodwatch.org.
Their recommendations are unbiased and consider a wide variety of factors. These include:
The strength of the population of the target species
The environmental impact of the fishing or farming method
The strength of populations of bycatch species
The transparency or ethics of providers in a particular fishery
The success or lack of success of conservation and rehabilitation efforts for specific populations of fish
“Best Choice” is the highest rating they give, based on the above factors. When you choose a “best choice” species on seafood watch, you can be confident that you are making an all-around responsible decision. In order to use the recommendations from seafoodwatch, you will need the species and the country of origin, and you need to know if it is farmed or wild caught. In some cases, it helps to know the method of take. This last one can be challenging to know, but it doesn’t hurt to ask your seafood provider. Sometimes you can see a hole around the mouth which would indicate a line caught fish, but otherwise, you can’t really tell by looking at most fish. With many species, it doesn’t matter.
The challenge this week is to look for a new “best choice” fish to try. You can use seafood watch on your smartphone while you are shopping, so you don’t need to decide ahead of time. Just see what they have in the case and then do a little quick research. Hopefully, once you see how easy it is, you’ll use it every time to make sustainable seafood decisions. The recommendations don’t change often, so you can learn which fish are best and you won’t have to look them up for every trip to the store.
Good luck with this challenge. I hope you find a new favorite fish.