There’s a huge dichotomy in choosing seafood for dinner. On one hand, the essential fatty acids in the fish oil that you get naturally from seafood are really good for you, and fish is a low calorie high protein food source. On the other hand, it’s well known that most, if not all, seafood contains heavy metal contamination. It’s also known that the huge factory fisheries are depleting the oceans faster than nature can restock them, which is heading us toward a food crisis. How do you make good and sustainable choices when purchasing fish and other seafood for your family?
The Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) has made it a little easier for you to make good sustainable seafood choices. They’ve created the Seafood Watch Program to help people make better choices when buying food from the sea. Their Super Green List of fish is a quick guide to getting the best out of your seafood purchases, listing those fish which are farmed or caught in a sustainable manner in certain regions, and are lowest in environmental contaminants. MBA has also produced regional guides which are available as pdf files, as printed guides, or as cellphone applications.
Some of the better green choices are US or British Columbia troll or pole caught albacore tuna, US freshwater tank farmed coho salmon, and wild caught pink shrimp from Oregon.
Thank you, Monterey Bay Aquarium, for taking the guesswork out of our Green Seafood Buying!
