tuna

Shop Sustainable Seafood

scleaver — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:11:37 -0500

GreenPeace released the supermarket rankings on their seafood sustainability. As reported in The Food Section, Greenpeace graded 20 supermarket chains (national and regional) on their seafood purchasing and sales policies and practices.

Of the national and regional chains, none earned a “good” grade. Four supermarkets earned a passing grade: Whole Foods, Ahold, Target, and Harris Teeter. Right after the “passing” supermarkets, however, was Walmart. And, the lowest ranked four were Price Chopper, H.E. Butt, Meijer, and Trader Joe’s. Find your favorite supermarket on the Scorecard.

But, perhaps of more importance, Greenpeace also published a list of their favorite sustainable seafood retailers. (See the full list here.) On that list: Andronico’s Market in San Francisco, Hanover Co-op Food Stores, Davis Food Co-op, and my old favorite when I lived in the DC area, My Organic Market.

To find Greenpeace’s rating of a supermarket near you, use their Supermarket Search tool.

Image of an albacore tuna from Greenpeace.

The Future of Fish

scleaver — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:02:12 -0500

Forget the image that you have of hundreds of fish swimming downstream, waiting to be caught by an eager fisherman, then ending up stacked on ice in the grocery store. According to The New York Times, by 2050, most of the farm we eat will be raised on huge aquaculture farms, and our favorite species may be harder to find. Thanks to over-fishing, many of our favorite species demand more energy, money, and equipment to produce the same amount of fish (85 million tons each year) even as demand is sky-rocketing—global consumption has doubled since 1973.

But, fish-lovers, all hope is not lost! Well-managed fisheries can bring around a declining species. How to help the world get its fisheries under control so that your favorite maki roll is safe?

Expand your palate. Right now, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, “”the maximum wild-capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached” (quoted in the New York Times). So, to give fisheries time to re-grow depleted populations of bluefin tuna, shark, Chilean sea bass, cod, and others, start buying lesser-known fish, like wild sardines or anchovies.
Buy wild fish, or catch it yourself. The aquaculture industry is feeding fish to fish, and it’s an inefficient industry. It takes five kilograms of smaller fish to produce one kilogram of farmed cod, and 20 kilogram of smaller fish to produce one kilogram of tuna. Not to mention that farmed fish hurts the surrounding water and doesn’t taste as good.
Support catch shares. Shares that allow fishermen to buy into an industry and the right to catch a sustainable harvest keeps the number of fish caught at a fixed number and has worked in Alaska.
For more info on fish, see the posts on sustainable sushi, seafood, and salmon.

Photo from Green Peace.

Mercury Dangers Lurk In Your Sushi

scleaver — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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.