Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch App puts sustainability at our fingertips
Chef Nathan Lyon and the Monterey Bay Aquarium team up to deliver an important message: you can find out if the fish you intend to buy is sustainable. From their website: “Emmy-nominated Chef Nathan Lyon will be sharing tasty recipes and Seafood Watch #sustainableseafood tips on TV shows across the country this year. First up is Cleveland, OH, on Wednesday, May 4 (Live on Lakeside WKYC). Keep an eye out for more on World Oceans Day in June and beyond!”
The idea of eating more sustainably caught and farmed fish is resonating across the country (and beyond) with chefs and eaters alike. As vast and as great as the oceans are, they are in serious trouble and many fish populations are in dangerous peril. What do we do? Do we eat less fish? Do we throw up our hands and wait for government regulators to figure out a solution? Do we simply ignore the problem, it’s too big an issue for any one individual to do much about?
No. I mean, hell no! 🙂
As eaters, we have choices in the foods we eat. We can decide that some fish like bluefin tuna should never be eaten because their populations are too seriously in decline. We can choose to eat less shrimp and look to alternatives like sardines that are high in nutrition but are in relative abundance and can be sustainably harvested.
And as Chef Lyon tells us in the video, there’s a simple Seafood Watch App that provides a wealth of accessible information for buyers, including:
- Type: Which ocean a type of fish is found.
- Location: A more precise location, for example, “California”.
- Method: How the fish was caught, such as, bottom trawl or farmed, etc.. (generally, the bigger the fishing vessel and the larger and deeper the fishing area that it’s nets encompass, the greater the likelihood and amount of habitat damage, and excess by-catch caught that inflicts harm to unintended fish.).
The App provides specific recommendations based on many factors and describes in simple language why a particular choice is better or worse from a health and sustainability perspective. It also shows a picture for each fish and where’s it’s from and let’s us know the options available, whether there are domestic, imported, farmed, or wild species available for purchase. We can also use our GPS location to find seafood markets that are nearby.
Get the App, go fishing, and check out Nathan’s new show…