Every so often, I like to get political, and recently, my political passion has been that of sustainable fishing and eating. Most people in my life are blaming my current read, The Whale Warriors by Peter Heller. They would be mostly right, this book is definitely teaching me and influencing me in ways that have been dormant for years.
See, I have been passionate about sustainable fishing practices for years, but as anyone who lives this way, it can be a difficult process. It takes a lot of dedication to know which fish are on the safe list, which ones need to be avoided, and where these fish are from. Luckily, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has put out a helpful Seafood Watch list. At one point, I had this list on my pescatarian mother's fridge, but now the Monterey Bay has taken it one step further in making it easy for us to be environmentally responsible by creating a Seafood Watch iPhone App. This app is super user friendly, and while my seafood shopping is now going to take me twice as long (checking labels for where it was caught, if it's farmed, etc.) I feel as though I will leave with a greater sense of satisfaction from my choices.
This unfortunately leads me to another question: why are sustainable fishing practices so difficult? Some resources are predicting that it will be virtually impossible to find fish for food sources by 2020. That's only 10 years, and if I believed in having children then I would definitely be worried about their future as well as my own. The more I learn about fishing practices the more I have begun to convince myself that while I am not ready to fully give up fish right now, I am going to make a strong effort to eat not only sustainably, but locally as well. While this means that I may not have access to Alaskan Wild Caught Salmon, and that I can no longer eat most Tilapias, it does not mean that all hope is lost for my love of fish.
After all, I still have access to all sorts of yummy bivalves, and we all know how much I love those....
1 comment:
I was checking out your blog and thought this post was pretty interesting. My first job was working in a fish store way back in 04. It's been awhile since I have read any sort of fish watch list but this was a good refresher. Pretty fucked up to think a lot of these great foods could all be gone soon if we don't do something about it. I guess I'll have to put my craving for mahi mahi and marlin on hold for awhile. Anyway good post!
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