If You Must Eat Seafood, Stick To These 25 Most Sustainable Choices

[Princess Kae-Leah]

I compiled this guide by compiling data from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's popular Seafood Watch guide. I crunched the numbers by type of seafood which has the most fisheries/types listed as "Green-Best", "Yellow-Good", and "Red-Avoid". None of the Top 25 Most Sustainable are listed as "Red-Avoid" by Seafood Watch. There are some more sustainable fisheries and farms for at least some of the Top 50 Least Sustainable, but they are often few and far between. Eating seafood can be like playing Russian Roulette, as Oceana and Greenpeace claim much seafood is mislabeled, and many restaurants and seafood sellers do not know where their seafood comes from.
If you must eat seafood, I recommend sticking ONLY to the Top 25. Some on that list are bivalves which are very low-impact to farm, do not need wild-caught fish to be fed, and from an animal welfare perspective suffer much less in captivity than large predatory fish such as salmon. Most of the finfish on that list are small fish that are relatively low on the food chain, so they tend to be more plentiful, lower in mercury contamination, and killing them usually does less damage to the ecosystem than large predatory fish. Small fish are tend to be able to be farmed with less environmental impact than larger species, because they eat less, with some species even being able to be farmed on a vegetarian diet. At the very least, consider avoiding the top 10 or 25 or so of the Top 50 Least Sustainable Choices, which are REALLY bad for the oceans, and many of them contain high levels of mercury as well.
Seafood lovers of the board, what do you think, can you follow this guide and only eat the Top 25?

Top 25 Most Sustainable Choices:
(1) Arctic Char
(2) Sanddab
(3) Barnacle
(4) Wreckfish
(5) Mullet
(6) Scallops
(7) Clams
(8) Sole
(9) Mackerel
(10) Sablefish
(11) Tilapia
(12) Lingcod
(13) Bass
(14) Scad
(15) Oysters
(16) Herring
(17) Seatrout
(18) Plaice
(19) Bluefish
(20) Croaker
(21) Mussels
(22) Drum
(23) Pollock
(24) Capelin
(25) Grenadier

Avoid These Top 50 Least Sustainable Choices:
(1) Eel
(2) Shad
(3) Orange Roughy
(4) Paddlefish
(5) Weakfish
(6) Dab
(7) Conch
(8) Grouper
(9) Anchovy
(10) Octopus
(11) Alfonsino
(12) Squid
(13) Halibut
(14) Marlin
(15) Haddock
(16) Snapper
(17) Walleye
(18) Hake
(19) Butterfish
(20) Spearfish
(21) Opah
(22) Tuna
(23) Cod
(24) Crab
(25) Shrimp
(26) Shark
(27) Rockfish
(28) Flounder
(29) Swordfish
(30) Sardine
(31) Perch
(32) Salmon
(33) Skates
(34) Amberjack
(35) Lobster
(36) Toothfish
(37) Sturgeon
(38) Bream
(39) Caviar
(40) Abalone
(41) Whitefish
(42) Mahi Mahi
(43) Trout
(44) Crawfish
(45) Catfish
(46) Tilefish
(47) Smelt
(48) Sea Urchin
(49) Cobia
(50) Pompano

[AniaR]

Great job

[Princess Kae-Leah]

Thanks Raina!!

[Princess Anouk]

All I can think of is 'When I SEE food, I eat it'...

I am a vegetarian, so I don't eat meat and sea food in general. My dad likes to eat grouper sometimes when we're on a holiday. He ordered a menu once which was called 'catch of the day'. I don't think that would be good for the oceanic envirement...

[Echidna]

I kind of pity the people who still eat aquatic animals.
Because it's obvious they haven't done their research.

Industrial waste, sewage, nuclear waste, chemical warfare and other ammunition, etc, lies in the oceans and many lakes.
Even if you don't care about mercury, by now all those barrels have rusted and release highly poisonous toxins into their environment.
There has been little research done (probably because of the outcry that would start if more people became aware of it), but all the fish tested for these toxins are chockfull of them.
Fish caught near the dumping sites- and that's the majority- have several thousand times the amount allowed of certain chemicals.
Chemical ammunition was designed to be extremely lethal. Conventional ammunition (TNT) is also highly toxic.

Pretty suicidal to eat fish and be smug about it, if you ask me.

[Merman Dan]

While wild-caught abalone is on the list of foods to avoid, there are a few sources of farm-raised abalone. The next time I get a craving for conch fritters I will be trying abalone instead. It still boggles my brain that there is only one conch farm, located at Turks and Caicos, though organizations like BREEF and Community Conch are making great strides in the Bahamas in regards to conservation.

As for fish farming, I hope this technology becomes widespread: Aqauapod

[SeaGlass Siren]

There's actually vegetarian abalone that is made out of tofu and Konjac root. Only restaurant that sells it is in Singapore

[SeaGlass Siren]

The area I'm moving to has a ton of local food options so soon I won't have to worry about weeding things out from my diet.

[DelphinaSerene]

We eat so much seafood in my family. Lobster especially will be hard since a lot of my family back in the day were lobster men and lobster is a tradition with us. This'll be hard but we really care about the environment so we'll try.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

I kind of pity the people who still eat aquatic animals.
Because it's obvious they haven't done their research.

Industrial waste, sewage, nuclear waste, chemical warfare and other ammunition, etc, lies in the oceans and many lakes.
Even if you don't care about mercury, by now all those barrels have rusted and release highly poisonous toxins into their environment.
There has been little research done (probably because of the outcry that would start if more people became aware of it), but all the fish tested for these toxins are chockfull of them.
Fish caught near the dumping sites- and that's the majority- have several thousand times the amount allowed of certain chemicals.
Chemical ammunition was designed to be extremely lethal. Conventional ammunition (TNT) is also highly toxic.

Pretty suicidal to eat fish and be smug about it, if you ask me.

I don't eat any seafood at all. I've always advocated very strongly for others to do the same, but with very little success. Too many people love seafood too much to give it up altogether, and it's marketed as very healthy. This guide is my attempt at offering a compromise for those who are unwilling to give it up altogether. As it is, it still may be a lot to ask for some to stick to the Top 25 list, as most of the most popular seafood such as tuna, lobster, and shrimp are on the avoid list. I realize that asking people to give those up and stick to mostly bivalves and some small "bait" fish is still a lot to ask for some.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

We eat so much seafood in my family. Lobster especially will be hard since a lot of my family back in the day were lobster men and lobster is a tradition with us. This'll be hard but we really care about the environment so we'll try.

I know lobster is very popular and a huge part of the local traditions for regions such as Maine and Nova Scotia. If you must eat lobster, Seafood Watch recommends you at least stick to trap or diver-caught California Spiny or Caribbean Spiny Lobster from the US or Mexico and avoid pot/trap caught American Lobster.

[Ciriun]

This is great for eating out or buying fish from the supermarket, but how do you apply it to fishing locally? I'm pretty sure most of the sustainable choices don't live in the lakes and rivers around here.

[Ashe]

I am such a big seafood eater, and I'll admit it. I knew about the toxins that are found in a lot of fish, but I didn't know how deep a lot of the underlying issues were. We do a lot of research on where our fish comes from and try to make good descisions about it. After reading this though, I think I'll watch out a little more and cut down

May I ask what you think about non commercially caught fish? I stay in Washington for a month out of the year and plan to move here when I can. I have family and friends that are into fishing on the coast and usually bring back salmon. How does this affect things? Is it a better alternative?

[Echidna]

I don't eat any seafood at all.

I know you don't.

I'm just amazed at just how many people still do with all the issues stemming from waste, industry and toxins.
Granted, you don't hear about it often, because the fishing industry wants to sell their catch.

In our local newspaper are regularly big articles about the north and baltic seas, which do nothing but advertise and market the fish caught there, with zero mention of the dumped ammunition and nuclear waste.
I wrote a letter, it was published, and then I got loads of emails of people who had never heard of it before.

Anyway.
Catching your own fish now and then is definitely better than buying, because industrial fishing does incredible harm to many species which die alongside and are not commercially used.

Mercury and other problems still apply, of course.

I love how many lakes here have restaurants advertising proudly the lake's own fish on their menus.
But none of them mention the fact that in these lakes, tons of toxic ammunitions were dumped.

It's something no one wants to know, hear, or talk about...especially as one such lake also serves as a drinking water reservoir for millions of people.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

More info on choosing sustainable seafood options:
If You Must Eat Canned Tuna...
Greenpeace Ranks These Six Brands As The Most Sustainable:

1. Wild Planet
2. American Tuna
3. Ocean Naturals
4. Whole Foods
5. Hy-Vee
6. Trader Joe's

Greenpeace Suggests Avoiding These Brands:

1. Starkist
2. Kroger
3. Bumble Bee
4. Chicken Of The Sea
5. Walmart
6. Target
7. Costco
8. Safeway

Basically if you must eat canned tuna, stick to the greener brands sold at stores like Whole Foods and stay away from all of the mainstream brands.

Greenpeace ranked these 10 supermarket chains as the best for sustainable seafood

1. Whole Foods
2. Wegmans
3. Hy-Vee
4. Safeway
5. Target
6. ALDI
7. Trader Joe's
8. Ahold
9. Delhaize
10. Meijer

And these as the worst, please avoid buying any seafood from these stores at all costs!
10 Worst:

1. Save Mart
2. A&P
3. Publix
4. Roundy's
5. Southeastern Grocers
6. WinCo
7. Albertsons
8. Kroger
9. Wakefern
10. SUPERVALU

Really if you must eat seafood, your best bet is to ONLY buy it from Whole Foods.
*Greenpeace ranked Whole Foods year after year in their annual ranking of seafood sustainability at US supermarkets
*They purchase as much wild-caught seafood as possible from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council
*For fisheries not MSC-certified, they only source from fisheries rated either a "Best Choice"(green) or "Good Alternative"(yellow) by Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Ocean Institute
*In 2012, they banned red-rated species in their stores--the first national grocer to make this stand
*They claim their Pole & Line Caught tuna is the most sustainable canned tuna option on the market. The fish in every can is caught one at a time using the pole and line method, which eliminates bycatch of marine mammals, sharks, and turtles
*In 2006, Whole Foods stopped selling live lobsters
*Whole Foods supports stopping illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing
*Whole Foods only sells farmed seafood free of antibiotics, added growth hormones, added preservatives like sulfites and phosphates, and land animal byproducts in feed.
*Whole Foods sells only non-GMO seafood
*Their standards require that producers of farmed seafood protect water quality, wildlife, and ecosystems
*Their standards prohibit conversion of sensitive ecosystems such as mangrove forests into shrimp farms
*Over the last decade, they stopped selling especially vulnerable species such as non-MSC-certified Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, bluefin tuna, sharks, marlins, sturgeon, Atlantic gray sole, tautog, trawl-caught Atlantic Cod, and imported wild shrimp
*Whole Foods does not support the Atlantic Canada seal cull, and since 2005 has suspended purchase of seafood from the areas where the brutal killing of seals is taking place until the fishermen commit to stopping this practice or from companies that may be connected to the seal cull. Seafood normally sourced from that area, including snow crab, wild PEI mussels, and bay shrimp have been replaced by similar products from other areas of the world. However, they allow farmed mussels or other farmed seafood from PEI and Nova Scotia, which are not implicated in the seal hunt, to be sold.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Nice ideas but we don't have those brands here in Australia. And what you post, seems to only apply to America and Canada, the brands that is. The ideas may work elsewhere but takes too much time to research.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

www.sustainableseafood.org.au

I found this website

[Merman Andrew]

Damn. Looks like I won't be eating Flake anymore from the local fish and chips shop.

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

[SeaGlass Siren]

what about eating locally caught seafood?

[Merman Andrew]

what about eating locally caught seafood?

How can you know for sure it is locally caught? Often I have bought fish from shops that supposedly sell 'fresh' fish (on the coast etc), only to find it's frozen. While this in itself doesn't mean it's not local, to me it's a give away that the fish is not local.

Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk