Fish ethics.

I love fish. Really. (DH doesn't, but that's another story.) But it's so hard to buy, because the ethics behind even a single filet are so complex.

Farm raised salmon: not so good. Dyes added to the feed, they're carnivores, so they're eating other fish that have to be caught and that adds to the whole ecological mining of the oceans; there's some worry that if they escape, they may breed with wild salmon and cause some sticky genetic issues. So that's a no, not if I can help it, food.

Pacific, wild caught salmon: The runs are in serious, serious trouble. Last year's run was approximately 1% of the first run documented in 1905. That's not a typo... in 100 years, 99% of the Pacific coast salmon has been killed off. There are worries in the eco community that Pacific salmon may not recover for 50 or more years, and then only if we leave it alone entirely for at least the next decade. So, that's a no, not if I can help it, food.

Atlantic salmon is in better shape than Pacific, but that's not hard. The Atlantic, however, has far more serious pollution issues than the Pacific, being somewhat smaller, and having significantly more industry on the coasts. I'm not a big fan of PCBs, and the Atlantic has a lot of them. So that's the choice, but really, salmon is pretty much on my no, thanks, anyway list. (And I adore smoked salmon....)

Cod: The Atlantic schools make the Pacific Salmon schools look absolutely overpopulated.

Orange Roughy: I've got a serious problem eating something that's older than my grandfather and spawns so rarely.

Chilean Sea Bass (aka Patagonian Toothfish): I don't eat endangered species. Period. Most of the Patagonian Toothfish that comes into the US is pirated. Eating it is like eating a Bengal Tiger burger.

And then there are the mercury issues, the importation issues (like SE Asian shrimping destroying the Gulf Coast and Florida Keys industry), sanitary issues... Fish at the top of the food chain (swordfish, shark, albacore tuna) have a heavy metals load that makes a Metallica concert look like a night at the opera. Fish at the bottom of the food chain are pretty necessary for the continued survival of the fish at the top of the chain.

It's enough to make me crazy. So, beyond hake and tilapia and anchovies.... there just aren't many choices.

It's sad that on a planet as wealthy as this one in the bounties of nature, we have been such poor shepherds.

of the ocean has been overfished and is not replenishing at the rate it is being depleted.

Good thing I like shellfish!

Their site seems to be down, but I got it throughthe google cache.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/gg/pdf/fishchartissue97.pdf

and here's the site where it should have been located:
http://new.thegreenguide.com/docprint.mhtml?i=93&s=bestfish

and the google cache link:
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:brbyouTWnRkJ:new.thegreenguide.com/docprint.mhtml%3Fi%3D93%26s%3Dbestfish+green+%22Best+Fish+Picks%22&hl=en

our friend who's an oceanographer and marine biologist at Woods Hole, we gave up eating fish.

We also gave up swimming in the oceans.

Most of what's being done to our waters, by the way, is being done by various nations' militaries.

And what he said about shellfish just left me staring into space. Never again.

"...poor shepherds" is one way of putting it.

I prefer "murderous thugs"".

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp

It has extensive info on many kinds of fish and seafood, which are okay or not and why. Even has printable pocket guides by region.

that is safe, abundant, and not mined. (A harvest presumes that the crop is managed; mining presumes that when the resource is used up, it's gone.)

Even shrimp, which grow like weeds, reproduce like rabbits and are pretty much universal are scary when the toxics loads are considered, and most of the guides don't have a good enough grasp of organic chemistry to really talk about toxics loads.