Eco Friendly Fish & Seafood

Balancing the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids against concern of both the environmental impact of over fishing and of heightened mercury levels is not an easy one. Here’s some great links that we like from Environmental Defense Fund (www.edf.org) to help guide us through this mine field

Eco friendly fish

Sushi

Sushi is an obvious one…. who can forget the NY Times article earlier this year about the Tuna mercury levels in various NYC sushi restaurants that had the whole of Manhattan talking for months. In case you missed it, here’s the summary name and shame file….

(Tut tut tut to our local friends at the Blue Ribbon empire)

Interesting to see how often tuna and farmed salmon turn up on the Eco-Worst list, yet make up such a large amount of the Sushi restaurant plates. Also interesting of note in the list of Eco-Unfriendly fish is Red Snapper and for our friends in the UK – Monkfish.

A big part of the concern with a lot of these species is the farming or fishing methods. Reguarly are fishing trawlers dumping vast quantities of “sub-optimal” catch overboard in deep sea to get around fishing quotas.

We found EcoFish a good source of information on where to buy fish that is pre-certified as environmentally clear and of good quality. This is a list of retailers in the Manhattan area where you can buy fish that has EcoFish stamp of approval.

The website is also interesting as a resource for information about fish-farming methods and how these can be detrimental to your health and to the environment.

Please take some time to look around the web resources hereby and as always, vote with your feet!