Is Your Fish Sustainable?

Many of us try to include more fish in our diet because we are aware of the beneficial effects on our hearts and our health in general. The summer is a great time for barbecuing fish and the supermarkets have an abundance of wonderful looking fish and seafood available.

However, quite often people worry about the safety of eating certain seafood, especially if it is farmed overseas, and for those ecologically minded people, the worry of over-farming fish is of great concern many of us would like see greater use being made of protected areas to safeguard fish stocks. Scientists at Stanford University predicted some time ago that unless we change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century will be the last century of wild seafood.

So I was interested to learn about a new resource for consumers and retailers which gives information about fish and other seafood in the U.S in the form of a website run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries). The website, called “FishWatch – U.S. Seafood Facts” should help people identify the status of fishery stocks and understand the management and science requirements involved with building and maintaining sustainable fisheries. You can visit this site at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch.

If you are at all concerned about your diet, and knowing whether you are buying sustainably sourced fish in supermarkets, check out this site, which also provides nutrition information and other interesting facts about U.S. fisheries, and over the next 60 days is inviting comments from readers to help evaluate and improve its website.