Green Living
Finding safe and eco-friendly seafood
Published: June 21, 2011
Fish is part of a healthy diet, and EDF’s Seafood Selector has long helped consumers make the best choices. Developed with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it identifies fish that are safe to eat and caught or farmed sustainably. Our guide is different from others because we work with troubled fisheries to improve management and conservation, which over time can help their ratings in the Selector. Here are the latest developments:
Is Gulf seafood safe?
After the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion last year, consumer confidence in Gulf seafood fell. Consumers remain wary today, despite government assurances. Now a new testing program developed by EDF and Gulf fishermen, called Gulf Wild, tracks fish from ocean to plate.
“Gulf Wild testing goes well beyond what the government does,” says Tim Fitzgerald, EDF seafood policy analyst. The tests were developed with the University of Alabama’s School of Public Health.
The program is sampling more than a dozen species for oil-based contaminants, dispersants and heavy metals, and will eventually expand to all the fish in the Gulf catch share program, which helps conserve red snapper and other reef fish.
Gulf Wild fish is sold with a numerical tag. You can enter the tag number at MyGulfWild.com to see the captain who caught your fish and where it came from.
“The oil spill made it imperative to show that Gulf seafood is safe,” says David Krebs, president of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance. These Gulf Wild fishermen pledge to abide by rules that result in zero wasted fish.
Mercury in canned tuna
Consumers have been warned for years about mercury in popular fish like canned albacore (“white”) tuna. Concerned parents who rely on canned tuna for their kids’ lunches can check Seafood Selector consumption advisories, which are based on EPA’s health-assessment approach. Skipjack tuna, sold as canned “light” tuna, is lower in mercury than albacore.
Fish du jour with confidence
- Use EDF’s Seafood Selector to choose safe-to-eat, eco-friendly fish
- For more information on Gulf Wild, go to My Gulf Wild. Gulf Wild red snapper and grouper are available at:
- Fishbusterz, Madeira Beach, FL;
- North Coast Seafood, Boston, MA;
- Fulton Fish Market, New York, NY;
- or ask your fish dealer to order Gulf Wild
- List of sustainable fish purveyors supported by the California Fisheries Fund
- Wild Planet’s products are available in natural food chains, independent retailers and supermarkets throughout the United States; or order online
California retailer Wild Planet Foods offers canned albacore containing 62% less mercury than well-known national brands, making it roughly as low as typical “light” tuna. It is rated a Best Choice by Monterey Bay Aquarium. The California Fisheries Fund—a loan program begun by EDF to help West Coast fishermen fish sustainably—is assisting Wild Planet.
Wild Planet cans smaller tunas caught by low-impact methods. Since mercury accumulates in the tissue as fish grow, fish lovers should eat a variety of small fish, including Atlantic mackerel and sardines. This reduces your exposure to contaminants and helps conserve fish stocks as well. “The lower you eat in the food chain—generally the smaller fish—the less impact you have on the ocean,” explains EDF’s Fitzgerald.
Tracking radiation
In April, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan released 10,000 tons of radioactive water from the damaged reactors into the ocean. That prompted some restaurants—such as Le Bernardin, the famous New York seafood restaurant—to shun fish from Japan and buy radiation detectors.
Very little seafood is now being caught in Japanese waters, but any fish harvested there and imported into the United States will undergo screening for radiation, as will other food products from Japan. Most canned tuna sold here is caught nowhere near Japan.
Also In This Issue
- A band of mothers
- Utilities: Good, bad and ugly
- Louisiana's coastal wetlands
- Lifeline for Gulf sea turtles
- Finding common ground in Cuba
- Climate Corps expands
- On campus, Energy Efficiency 101
- A better way to grow food
- Geoengineering: Worth the risk?
- GREEN LIVING Eco-friendly seafood
- Bioenergy and nature: A balancing act
- INFOGRAPHIC Toxic chemicals in you
- PHOTOS Think globally, act locally
- Cartoon caption contest
- WHERE WE STAND Corporate America must choose
- FIELD NOTES desert wetland | illegal wildlife trade | endangered songbirds | Mississippi Delta |
- TALK BACK An inquiry: What should the U.S. do about nuclear power?
One Comment
The program to test the whether the fish is hygienic or not taken by Gulf Wild is of course a good news to the consumers of sea fish. After the explosion caused in the ocean, this is positive move to give assurance. Again the radiation in Japan caused another headache to fish consumer.