Sustainable Seafood Guide
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 14th, 2009
Since I have been on the sustainability wave, I thought I would blog about it one more time. This one is dedicated to my dear readers on the west coast. Why? Simply because the information I have to share pertains to the west coast. :) However, to the rest of my domestic readers, don’t fret, there’s a guide for your area too. Click here. And to my international readers: I’m sure if you googled, you would find some information for your country.
Thanks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and CAS, I give you the West Coast Sustainable Seafood Guide: Why it matters what seafood you chose to eat and how it can make a difference. Interested? read further. Not? Too bad I’m writing about it anyway. :)
Why do your seafood choices matter? (I think that’s a pretty good question.)
Worldwide, the demand for seafood is increasing. Yet, many populations of the large fish we enjoy eating are overfished and, in the U.S., we import 80% of our seafood to meet the demand. Destructive fishing and fish farming practices only add to the problem.
By purchasing fish caught or farmed using environmentally friendly practices, you’re supporting healthy, abundant oceans.
You can make a difference (Oh good, I was hoping you were going to let us know how.)
Support ocean-friendly seafood in three easy steps:
- Purchase seafood from the green list or, if unavailable, the yellow list. Or look for the Marine Stewardship Council blue eco-label in stores and restaurants.
- When you buy seafood, ask where your seafood comes from and whether it was farmed or wild-caught.
- Tell your friends about Seafood Watch. The more people that ask for ocean-friendly seafood, the better!
BEST CHOICES: Are abundant, well-managed, and caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.
- Abalone (US farmed)
- Arctic Char (farmed)
- Barramundi (US farmed)
- Catfish (US farmed)
- Clams, Mussels, Oysters (farmed)
- Cobia (US farmed)
- Cod: Pacific (Alaska longline)+
- Crab: Dungeness
- Halibut: Pacific+
- Lobster: Spiny (US)
- Pollock (Alaska wild)+
- Rockfish: Black (CA, OR)
- Sablefish/Black Cod (Alaska+, BC)
- Salmon (Alaska wild)+
- Sardines: Pacific (US)
- Scallops: Bay (farmed)
- Shrimp: Pink (OR)+
- Striped Bass (farmed or wild*)
- Tilapia (US farmed)
- Trout: Rainbow (farmed)
- Tuna: Albacore (troll/pole, US+or BC)
- Tuna: Skipjack (troll/pole)
- White Seabass
GOOD CHOICES: Are and option but there are concerns with how they’re caught or farmed -or with the health of their habitat due to other human impacts.
- Caviar, Sturgeon (US farmed)
- Clams, Oysters*(wild)
- Cod: Pacific (US trawled)
- Crab: King (US), Snow, Imitation
- Flounders, Soles (Pacific)
- Halibut: California
- Lingcod*
- Lobster: American/Maine
- Mahi mahi/Dolphinfish (US)
- Rockfish (Alaska or BC, hook & line)
- Sablefish/Black Cod (CA, OR, WA)
- Salmon (WA wild)*
- Sanddabs: Pacific
- Scallops: Sea (wild)
- Shrimp (US, Canada)
- Spot Prawn (US)
- Squid
- Swai, Basa (farmed)
- Swordfish (US)*
- Tilapia (Central America farmed)
- Tuna: Bigeye, Yellowfin (troll/pole)
- Tuna: Canned Skipjack and Albacore*
- Yellowtail (US farmed)
AVOID: for now as these items are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.
- Caviar, Sturgeon*(imported wild)
- Chilean Seabass/Toothfish*
- Cod: Atlantic, imported Pacific
- Cobia (imported farmed)
- Crab: King (imported)
- Dogfish (US)*
- Grenadier/Pacific Roughy
- Lobster: Spiny (Caribbean)
- Mahi mahi/Dolphinfish (imported)
- Marlin: Blue*, Striped*
- Monkfish
- Orange Roughy*
- Rockfish (trawled)*
- Salmon (farmed, including Atlantic)*
- Sharks*
- Shrimp (imported)
- Swordfish (imported)*
- Tilapia (Asia farmed)
- Tuna: Albacore, Bigeye, Yellowfin
- (longline)*
- Tuna: Bluefin*, Tongol, Canned
- (except Albacore and Skipjack)
- Yellowtail (imported, farmed)
* Limit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants.
+Some or all of this fishery is certified as sustainable to the Marine Stewardship Council standard. Visit www.msc.org
Learn More
Our recommendations are researched by the Monterey Bay Aquarium scientists. For more information about your favorite seafoods including items not listed here, click here Pocket guides are updated twice yearly. Get current information on your mobile device, and our website or by adding our free app to your iPhone.
Readers: There you have it! And FYI: You can download a pocket guide from the website. I suggest that you carry it around with you so when you shop or go out to eat, you are always informed.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the ‘Donate’ button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my ‘Donate’ page)
October 14th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending millions lobbying against clean energy.1 That’s why companies like Apple are dropping out in protest.2
MoveOn members are calling on Toyota to join the movement and quit the Chamber.
Toyota just launched one of their biggest ad campaigns ever to boost their green image.3 So you’d think they wouldn’t want to fund the Chamber’s anti-climate lobbying at the same time, right?
Yesterday, Toyota responded to our calls. Basically, they said: Sorry, just because we give money to anti-environment lobbyists doesn’t mean we’re not green. We’re staying.4
That doesn’t cut it. There’s just too much at stake.
Can you call today and ask Toyota to quit the Chamber of Commerce? If you called last week, call again. Tell them you’re disappointed by their statement and want them to reconsider. Here’s the number:
Toyota
1-800-331-4331, press 4
If the line is busy or there’s no answer, call your local Toyota dealer. Then let us know you called by clicking here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call?cp_id=1142&tg=634&id=17533-7692656-Letn0Zx&t=3
The Chamber of Commerce is one of the most powerful right-wing lobbying groups in Washington.
They oppose virtually everything in the Obama agenda—health care, bank reform, helping homeowners. And they’ve launched a massive $100 million campaign to kill the President’s priority bills.5
But the Chamber wouldn’t have so much money and influence if they weren’t funded by big companies like Toyota.
We know Toyota wants consumers to think they’re a green company. Frankly, it helps sales. And if they catch enough heat from consumers, they’ll have to drop out.
We need to respond to their statement right away to keep the pressure on. Can you call today? Here again is the number:
Toyota
1-800-331-4331, press 4
If the line is busy or there’s no answer, call your local Toyota dealer. Then let us know you called by clicking here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call?cp_id=1142&tg=634&id=17533-7692656-Letn0Zx&t=4
Thanks for your help.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
There’s one difference to Biden as a vocal opponent of US adventurism abroad — previous types who “worked behind closed doors” (against the Vietnam occupation for example) got NO publicity. Biden is getting plenty and that has to tell at some point. I was never a big fan of his before but I am now. Stay, Joe, stay! Keep joltin’ ‘em!
October 14th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Hafa adai
The BUTT RUSTLERS are at it again. They are trying to manipulate the Guam Legislature again.
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Hagatna, Guam, Oct 14, 2009 / 02:39 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, OFM Cap., issued a pastoral letter on Oct. 14 stating that the Guam Legislature “will forfeit its moral authority to continue to govern this island” if it passes a bill providing homosexual unions with the same benefits as married couples.
_____________________________________
One would think that people would be able to see through these Misogynists and pedophiles by now.
Peter
“As a bishop of the Catholic Church, I cannot remain silent about the efforts being made in the Guam Legislature which are a complete contradiction of the teaching regarding marriage that the Church has received from the Lord,” said the archbishop, in reference to Bill 185, which would provide health and tax benefits to same-sex couples who enter into a domestic partnership.
In the letter, dated Oct. 7 but released on Wednesday, Archbishop Apuron said Bill 185 “redefines the meaning of marriage” and promotes a homosexual lifestyle. He described the legislation as “doubly destructive because it encourages a lifestyle that is intrinsically unhealthy.”
“Laws in favor of homosexual unions are contrary to right reason because they confer legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, to unions between persons of the same sex,” Apuron wrote.
He also explained that “every humanly-created law is legitimate only insofar as it is consistent with the natural moral law, recognized by right reason, and insofar as it respects the inalienable rights of every person.”
If the state passes the bill into law, Archbishop Apuron warned that it will fail in its “duty to promote and defend marriage as an institution essential to the common good.”
The Archbishop of Agaña –whose jurisdiction encompasses Guam and other U.S. Pacific islands—also addressed the issue of the separation of Church and State in his letter, saying that “the Catholic Church has the right and duty to address moral issues in the public square.” The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, he noted, “does no more than simply forbid the establishment of the state religion.”
Archbishop Apuron closed his letter by calling on “Catholics and all others of good will to join with me in making our voices heard in the deliberations of our legislature.” He also asked Catholics to sign a petition sponsored by the archdiocese “so that those senators who desire to do the right thing for Guam will know that they are not alone.”
Archbishop Apuron’s full letter is available at: http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/images/pdf/archletter.pdf
______________________________________________
October 14th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Hafa adai
Michelle
I don’t mean to dominate your blog but I need to say this about the scum that are lining up to rob the soldiers that will be stationed on Guam after they leave Okinawa.
___________________________________________________________________
Casino buildup planned for Pacific
(AP) – 4 hours ago
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — Casino investors are buying up hotel properties on Rota, the second-largest island of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in hopes of attracting military gamblers once the U.S. increases its presence in nearby Guam.
Japanese and Korean investors separately bought two Rota hotels this month in anticipation of turning them into the island’s first casinos.
Many of their customers would be 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents who will be moved from Okinawa, Japan to Guam, located just 35 miles to the south of Rota.
The new casinos could take business from the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, located on the island of Tinian to the north of Rota.
___________________________________
Peter
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October 14th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Peter that is a bit much even for you.
Okay girls here’s one for you.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Guam girls win first league title
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, October 16, 2009
Guam High’s best fall season in the school’s 12-year history continued Wednesday as the Panthers girls captured their first All-Island cross-country championship on the 3.1-mile Nimitz Hill Golf Links course.
Alexis Bosworth and Megan Speck placed 1-2 in 22 minutes, 5 seconds, and 22:24. Quincy Tougher took sixth in 23:53 and Susan Smith eighth in 24:05. As a team, Guam High (32 points) outdistanced George Washington (55) and Simon Sanchez (86).
“This is the best team we’ve ever had in all the years I’ve coached Guam High,” coach Joe Taitano said. “We set a goal at the beginning of the year. I said this is the best team Guam High has ever had and this is our chance to move up to the podium.”
To outgun defending league champion George Washington, both in a regular-season dual meet earlier this season and in Wednesday’s All-Island meet “is no easy task, and we did it today,” Taitano said. “The way they finished was unbelievable.”
Guam High’s boys took third with 87 points, trailing John F. Kennedy (86) and George Washington (54). No Panthers boys runners placed in the top 10.
The girls title is the first league championship for Guam High, which is also enjoying a fine run on the gridiron and the volleyball court.
Under first-year coach Billy Henry, the Panthers football team broke out of the gate 4-1 and has sealed second place in the regular season, best in school history.
And also under a first-year coach, Steve Hollister, Guam High’s girls volleyball team has reached the semifinals of the league playoffs, having beaten Okkodo and Simon Sanchez in the first two rounds. The Panthers play St. John’s on Thursday in the semifinals at University of Guam Field House.
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Hafa adai
Anna
October 14th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Michelle
My friends and my parents are so excited by your article. We have been busy copying and sending to our friends.
Your are the best!
Belinda
October 14th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
You see, President Obama had always boasted the fact he was among the very few who believed that the invasion of Iraq was wrong. Few admired his judgment and probably voted for him because of this issue alone.
Joe Biden can learn from this and voice out his opposition in public without even resigning. He could then run for the presidency in few years time based on this judgment alone. And who knows, there may few who will vote for him because of it again.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Biden is just a 9th grader as far as war strategies go…He thinks simple answers like 30:1 is the the problem.
We know we cannot go into Pak. So what is happening is… we need to get Pak in between the strong India and stable Afghanistan, then the ISI does not have anything more to do, and then we start ferreting out AlQaeda from Pak.
Remember, India is deliberately NOT wiping out insurgency in Kashmir. If India wipes out insurgency completely from Kashmir… then it cannot keep its troops amassed there.. it will look unnatural.. Hence India needs a reason for keeping its forces in Kashmir, so that AlQaeda does not start occupying that place. India also has HUGE intersest in Afghanistan.
Huge multi billion $ projects are going on… so it is a trade between US and India to keep peace in Afghanistan…in return India will not aggressively move forward on its nuclear program…
If we go now full fledged into Pak, not force, but aggressive seek and destroy or help the govt…., ISI will be pissed and it will start helping Taliban and AlQaeda in Afghanistan again…
In order to keep ISI domant or incapcitated we need a strong Afghanistan and a strong India….and Pak must be held like a nut in between the two prongs of the nut cracker.
Biden thinks it is simple……
But I think Obama has much more… much much more information than Biden has.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Afghanistan is about Lithium, and heroin. Our war on drugs will never end in the U.S. because it is a huge underground profit maker for the CIA and it helps to put and keep the OTW behind bars. The Lithium mines in Afghanistan are desired by the corporate American firms for the new upcoming “green” technologies involving Lithium storage devices. It has never been about Bin Laden or Al Queda. It’s simply of matter of following the money and watching the control of ascention of power.