Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

Mother Jones has an article by Kiera Butler on the "12 Most Toxic Fish (For Humans and the Planet.)"

Food & Water Watch just released its 2010 Smart Seafood Guide to the safety and sustainability of more than 100 kinds of fish and shellfish. Now I still love the Monterey Bay Aquarium's pocket guides and searchable Seafood Watch site (the only place where you can geek out with a trawling fact card, as far as I know), but the Smart Seafood Guide has a few unique features worth pointing out.

For starters, while some guides only address human health issues (like mercury) and environmental problems (like overfishing), Food & Water Watch also considers seafood's socioeconomic impact. "For example, lobster is a a key part of the economy up in Maine," says Marianne Cufone, director of Food & Water Watch's fish program. "Knowing that fact is really important to some consumers."

Another handy thing: It's organized by texture and taste, so you can figure out the safest and most sustainable options in categories such as "mild" and "steak-like." This makes it easy to figure out substitutes for recipes.

Here's Food & Water Watch's "dirty dozen" list of seafood that failed to meet at least two of the group's criteria. For more details, plus a list of alternatives for each verboten species, check out the guide. In no particular order:

1. King crab

• Even though crab is abundant in some parts of the US, imports from Russia—which aren't well regulated—are much cheaper and more common.

2. Caviar, especially from beluga and other wild-caught sturgeon

• Overfishing and poaching of this coveted species is very common.

3. Atlantic bluefin tuna

• Extreme overfishing, plus concerns about mercury and PCB contamination.

4. Orange roughy

• May contain mercury and "is particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to its long lifespan and slow maturation."

5. Atlantic flatfish (e.g. flounder, sole and halibut)

• Seriously overfished.

6. American eel

• Concerns about mercury and PCBs.

7. Atlantic Cod

• Overfished, and also has major bycatch problems.

8. Imported catfish

• Much of it comes from Southeast Asia, "where use of chemicals and antibiotics is barely regulated."

9. Chilean seabass

• Concerns about mercury, plus illegal fishing in Chile damages marine life and seabirds.

10. Shark

• May contain mercury, also overfished.

11. Atlantic and farmed salmon

• Concerns about contamination with PCB, pesticides, and antibiotics. Also, waste and germs from salmon farms often leaches out of the cages and can harm the surrounding marine life.
  

12. Imported shrimp

• About 90 percent of it comes from countries where the seafood industry (waste control, chemical use, and labor) isn't well regulated.

Over fishing, pollution and environmental considerations are all aspects of this issue which need to be considered in making decision about what to eat.

The Endangered Bluefin Tuna

Celebrities Pose Naked to Save Bluefin Tuna

From the Telegraph

Greta Scacchi, Emilia Fox and Terry Gilliam pose naked to save bluefin tuna.

The world's most expensive fish, already recognised as being as endangered as the giant panda, is still being served in celebrity restaurants around the world.

However a study of the bluefin tuna on the Japanese market by fisherman-turned whistle blower Robert Mielgo found the majority of fish for sale were immature, meaning the current population has little chance of recovery because of a shortage of breeding adults.

The issue is highlighted in a new film the End of the Line released at cinemas nationwide on World Ocean Day (8th June). The documentary, that has been compared to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, warns that overfishing could result in the end of seafood by 2048 because all fishing stocks will collapse as a result of overfishing.

Celebrities who have already seen the film were so shocked that many have posed naked for the acclaimed photographer Ian Rankin to raise awareness.

Greta Scacchi, who took part alongside Emilia Fox and Terry Gilliam, urged consumers to only buy sustainable fish to help stocks of all fish recover as well as the bluefin tuna.

Read more here.