<== Site of the Week for 2012-03-05 ==>
Seafood Watch
The world is suffering a crisis of over fishing. Many of the most popular species of fish are fished to the brink. This is especially true of larger carnivorous fish.
Seafood Watch is a site by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium that provides ratings on the sustainability of different fish populations along with detailed reports on farmed and wild caught fish.
Since the fishing industry is driven by demand, an educated public can make a huge impact by encouraging best practices. The site lists popular culinary fish by common name. It then provides a rating on farmed or wild caught variety of fish. The report provides the ratings: "Best Choice," "Good Alternative" and "Avoid."
I was delighted to learn that farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) scores well. I often feasted on wild caught trout with my grandfather before over fishing became problematic.
Some fish do well when farmed. Mussles, for example, feed by filtering algae from the water. Mussles will thrive on farms. Wild caught mussles have problems with toxins and disease and should be avoided at all costs. Salmon, on the other hand, require large amounts of feed and seem to have a worse build up of toxins than their wild kin.
