Naturalpath

Do you know where your seafood comes from? If you answered no, you’re not alone. Current labeling practices make it difficult to determine if the fish you’re about to purchase is an eco-friendly choice. Missing information includes, fishing method, location the fish was caught at, was it farmed or wild, are the population levels healthy, etc. There have been many incidences where the fish being purchased isn’t even labeled as the correct species. These issues raise some extremely alarming concerns for the eco-friendly seafood movement. If even the most aware and educated individuals find it difficult to obtain enough information to make an eco-friendly seafood purchase then how can we expect the general public to take action?

• The first step is to become educated about eco-friendly seafood. Two great educational resources can be found online at: www.seafoodwatch.org and www.fishwise.org.
• Second, begin to tell your local restaurants and seafood markets/distributors that you want more information about the seafood they carry and that you would prefer it if they carried eco-friendly seafood choices. I recently came across an excellent letter written by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that you can personalize and send to your local restaurant or supermarket. It can be found online at: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/MBA_SeafoodWatch_Letters.pdf. An excellent solution for your local supermarket is FishWise, a seafood labeling program that provides the consumer with enough information to make an eco-friendly choice. If your local supermarket doesn’t use the FishWise program you can download an “I want FishWise card” and give it to them, http://www.fishwise.org/images/stories/Documents/comment_card.pdf.
• Third, carry a Seafood Watch card with you and try your best to use it to make eco-friendly purchases. The card can be downloaded online at: http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.asp.
• Finally, in the absence of information sometimes abstinence is the best choice.

I hope that people find this information useful. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Stay tuned for next weeks blog “Why should I purchase eco-friendly seafood?”