A nice piece of grilled fish is supposed to be the healthy menu option. A few pieces of tuna sushi were just what the doctor ordered right? With fears about mercury levels in fish, concern about seafood from China, and news of the impending extinction of the Bluefin tuna (the yummy one) due to overfishing, many of us have seafood anxiety on the brain. It can be hard to make sense of everything you hear when you're trying to navigate your health and the health of our seas.
These guidelines first appeared on Well and Good NYC
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A statistic like "annual productivity" measured in tonnage does not speak at all about how delicate marine ecosystems are. For example, regulators see a decline in numbers in a target species like swordfish over a number of years, so they will tighten catch limit on that species in an effort to allow the population to rebound, as a result, forage fish like sardines, herring, or mackerel are over fished because the quotas are relaxed, in an attempt to lessen the blow to the industry from the swordfish restrictions. The forage fish are the swordfishes primary food source. If their food source is more scarce, and they are forced to travel farther to find less of it, how are they supposed to rebound into a healthy stock? The answer is; They don't. But by now demand is so high for swordfish, value is way up, and the restrictions are lifted.This is a very basic example of a very complex problem. Every fisherman/woman, commercial captain or casual angler I have ever spoken says the same thing. It gets worse every year.
"Go Wild because it's hard to understand the scoop with farming operations?" How is it any easier understanding where and how wild seafood is caught. It's a lot easier to understand how certain species are farmed than what happens hundreds of miles out at sea.
At least the article does mention some retailers that making the decisions for you. It's difficult for consumers to stay abreast of all the standards, which is why we need more retailers and suppliers shouldering the burden of vetting fisheries for responsibility. Bittman had a great article the week after the post they mention on a company - ilovebluesea.com - that only sells sustainable seafood. So don't avoid eating seafood, as some have commented, rather support the fisheries that are doing the right thing.
Eating sushi is nowhere near as popular as is eating cooked fish, ALL kinds of cooked fish.
I will give up some sushi for health reasons....but not all.
PLEASE watch this documentary:
FOOD, Inc.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/photo_gallery_watch.php
then DO SOMETHING...
share the knowledge with your family & friends at the very least
Tuna? You've got to be kidding. There's so much mercury, there shouldn't be a recommendation in this slide show to eat any kind of tuna, not just toro sushi.
I agree with the whole foods comment. I would go so far as to say it's worst than mixed bag. It's mostly bad. But you can pick up some sockeye wild salmon there when it's in season that's pretty good.
Here's what I got "........, I believe the reference on the label that you were asking about might reflect the common practice of locating ponds very near the seawater source, filling the ponds with the seawater to grow the shrimp, and replacing the seawater in those ponds periodically." That was the jest of the email, but on the phone he used the word gross.
Anyway great article.
So, no, american wild caught shrimp is NOT better than let's say Thailand shrimp.... where the water is probably better.
It is time to become a little more vigilant in what we are buying and cooking. Tonight's menu: Tempeh with 40 cloves of garlic (vegan) from vegweb.com.
But bottom trawling for shrimp, dragging nets on the sea floor, indiscriminately catches many "non-target" species. In some places that can comprise 90% of the catch.
Since shrimp is the #1 seafood in the US, your choice matters.
Check out articles, reports, videos and photos of the good and the bad at ShrimpSuck.org
It's worthwhile to see out the shrimp fishers/farmers who are doing it right, and to give them your business.
Studies have shown that some farmed fish and seafood such as oysters are great environmental choices, and among the most sustainable of any possible foods. In fact, oyster farming can even help the environment. Blanketly condemning farmed fish is unconscionable. There are some real problems with some types of fish farming, but please don't generalize like that.