Fishing for Greener Choices: seafood choices
31 Mar 2017
Trying to eat healthy and sustainably can be fishy business when it comes to seafood.
Here are the reasons why your seafood-buying choices matter.
By Haley Gray Seafood. They say it’s good for us; they say it’s bad for us. Some stores and restaurants offer “sustainable” seafood, but what does that really mean? Is it healthier? Is it better for the planet? When it comes to eating sustainable seafood, deciding what to buy can be complicated. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends people eat two servings of seafood per week. But the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says that directive is too broad to be useful—different fish have different nutritional value. And the fact that a certain species might be good for you doesn’t mean harvesting it was good for the environment. We spoke to the EWG, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see what consumers should know when purchasing sustainable seafood. Your first consideration should be health, says Sonya Lunder, senior analyst at EWG (and, incidentally, a Boulder resident). But consumers shouldn’t assume that any and all seafood has health benefits, she says. Rather, only some species have high fatty-acid content, i.e., lots of omega-3, which is the fat compound that makes fish such a stellar superfood and a nutritious protein source. So consider how much fatty acid the fish you’re buying possesses. Species like salmon and swordfish, for example, have a great deal of omega-3, while catfish and tilapia do not. Omega-3 benefits the body in a number of ways, from reducing inflammation and easing inflammatory diseases to benefiting stroke and heart attack survivors and nourishing pregnant women and their babies.
Hook, Line & Sinker
Acidification, trash accumulation, pollution and overfishing all threaten the world’s oceans. Simply put, overfishing means humans are plucking fish from the water faster than the fish can replenish themselves. Molly Masterton, an attorney with the NRDC’s Oceans Program, says a third of fish stocks (a population of any given species) are threatened by overfishing, while 90 percent of fish stocks worldwide have fallen below historic levels.
important sustainability factor. Bottom trawling with large nets destroys delicate ocean habitats. (illustration courtesy mba seafood watch)
Farming for the Future
Seafood is the most consumed protein source in much of the world. But with roughly 7 billion humans on the planet, there simply aren’t enough wild fish to feed everyone who eats it. If we want to keep enjoying seafood and its health benefits, Bigelow says we have to embrace fish farming. “Even if all of the fisheries were managed at what we consider a ‘green’ [sustainable] level, there are not enough fish in the wild,” Bigelow says. “So we have to farm fish if we’re going to continue to eat fish.”
Bigelow says various criteria should be taken into account when choosing farmed fish, including the effect on nearby wild populations, the use of chemicals and the management of effluents. But the criteria get very complicated very quickly, even for experts.
Seafood Watch, which the Natural Resources Defense Council endorses, examines these factors and compiles ratings to guide consumers to sustainably raised farmed fish. The organization looks at what the fish are fed, if their waste contaminates nearby waters, if the farmed fish are escaping and invading the host ecosystem, if dangerous chemicals are used and/or leached into the natural environment, and other things.
Most open-water farming methods, like submersible net pens and tuna ranching, are undesirable because of the high potential to leak both chemicals and the farmed species and their diseases into wild waters. Land-based closed-loop systems, however, filter and recycle water in a system of closed tanks and have almost no potential to leak harmful waste, species or diseases. Bigelow says these systems are an exciting development in fish farming that hold promise for the future of sustainable seafood consumption.
Better Buying Habits
With so many concerns, buying any seafood—farmed or wild—can be daunting. And with relatively lax labeling laws in the United States, Bigelow says it’s nearly impossible to adequately research and purchase sustainable seafood as an independent consumer. That’s why the Monterey Bay Aquarium created the Seafood Watch seafood consumer guide and the Seafood Watch sushi consumer guide. The guides list seafood and sushi by color rankings: green (the best, most sustainable options); yellow (decent options); and red (to be avoided). The EWG has a similar guide that depicts omega-3 and mercury content, and also indicates Seafood Watch recommendations. But why not recommend only green options? Bigelow says the task of moving markets toward sustainable-only seafood is so monumental that it’s wiser to encourage smaller changes, even if they’re not completely sustainable just yet. He adds, “Even if farms aren’t perfect right now, it behooves us to improve them. They’re here to stay. There’s no getting around that.”Check Before You Buy or Dine
