Food & Travel...

Today, the New York Times and WorldChanging.com reported that there is so much mercury in bluefin tuna, six pieces a week would exceed what the EPA deems as safe mercury levels. Six pieces! If you’ve ever seen some of the pieces they serve up on the average combo platter, that’s not a whole lot of fish, not to mention the rest of the fish that are on you rplate, or the other tuna products out there. Add that to the 20 New York restaurants that could be shut down because the levels of mercury in their sushi was so high and this is a dire situation.

As a species, tuna are having a rough go of it right now.The oceans are over fished, according to WorldChanging.com, “Japan’s annual quota for southern bluefin tuna has been cut in half . . .and its allotment of Atlantic bluefin has been reduced by almost 25 percent because of shortages.”The Washington Post reported that tuna imports have dropped and the already pricy fish has gotten more so. Not surprisingly, though a problem for sushi and tuna sandwich lovers, tuna as we know it faces extinction.

What’s a Tuna Lover to Do?

What alternatives can we use to give the poor bluefin a rest for a few years, so it can get back to its former, mercury-free self?

Kona Kampachi sushi is tuna grown on the ocean in “an environmentally friendly fish farm” sans hormones, antibiotics, or genetic engineering. And, it’s mercury free! (Sold at Whole Foods.)

Wild Planet: Wild Planet aims to provide seafood “only from fisheries that are sustainable” and “develop new standards of seafood safety that assure consumers protection.”

Learn more: Not convinced? Learn more about the issue at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna.