Skip the shrimp and tout the tilapia
A diet that includes more fish and less red meat has known health benefits. Food rich in omega-3 fatty acids not only can improve cardiovascular health and help prevent heart attack and stroke but also may help prevent depression and other diseases. Fish are an excellent source of omega 3 acids, but years of overfishing and unsound farming methods in the commercial seafood industry have threatened the survival of a number of ocean fish species, as well as the overall state of our oceans. Natural History Research Zoologist Carole Baldwin, lead author of One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook, offers some advice on how to enjoy the ocean’s bounty and still “eat sea green.”
How can we know where the fish we buy comes from and whether it is an ecologically sound choice?
New labeling laws make it easy to know where the seafood you’re purchasing comes from and whether it is farm-raised or wildcaught. Eco-friendly farmed fish in the U.S. include striped bass (rockfish), catfish, rainbow trout, tilapia and white sturgeon. Also try barramundi, a large Australian fish now being farmed in Massachusetts. Farmed Atlantic salmon remains problematic in many areas. Although well-regulated U.S. and European “organically farmed” salmon is good, your best choice is wild Alaskan salmon. Some grocery store chains are now selling sea bass from South Georgia Island in the sub-Antarctic, a fishery certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Avoid all other Chilean sea bass—the species is severely overfished, and illegal fishing for it is common. Sablefish and Pacific halibut are tasty, eco-friendly alternatives.
Are shellfish good choices?
Farm-raised oysters, mussels and clams continue to be good choices, as are West Coast Dungeness crabs—now locally available. Once-depleted snow crab populations have recovered under Alaskan fishery-management plans and are now a good choice.
It is fine to eat blue crabs in the summer, but avoid buying fresh crabs in the winter, when dredges may have been used to harvest females that have burrowed prior to spawning. Seafood labeling also has made selecting shrimp easier. In general, avoid imported shrimp. International fisheries that trawl for wild shrimp catch and discard 3 to 15 pounds of other marine life for every pound of shrimp—the largest bycatch of any commercial fishery.
What fish should be avoided?
Bluefin tuna is severely overfished and should be avoided. Yellowfin, skipjack and albacore tuna—fresh or canned—are better choices, but these fish are frequently caught with methods that incur high bycatch rates. The company Ecofish sells canned albacore tuna that is sustainably caught using single fishing lines. Ecofish tuna also is tested for contaminants, such as methylmercury and PCBs.
Learn which species are good choices and diversify your seafood selections among them. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fishwatch program and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch are informative websites, and the latter also offers regional sustainable seafood information via an iTunes app.
Dr. Carole Baldwin is a well-respected authority on marine biology, especially tropical-marine fishes. She grew up in coastal South Carolina and studied at James Madison University, the College of Charleston, and the College of William and Mary. She has published more than six dozen scientific articles, and her work includes the discovery of new species of fishes in Belize, Curacao, Tobago, Cook Islands, Australia, El Salvador and the Galápagos Islands.
Dr. Baldwin served as a curator of the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History where she is a Research Zoologist in the Division of Fishes. She has devoted much time to sharing her experiences as a marine biologist with students and the general public and is a role model for young girls considering careers in science.
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Posted: 5 April 2013
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Categories:
Feature Stories , Natural History Museum , Science and Nature
