As I stood at the fish counter, what I really wanted was a label that read: “YUMMY FISH, beloved by children, reasonably priced, poison-free and carefully harvested to preserve breeding populations, offer decent wages to fishing families and protect cute sea turtles (and other slimier but still important marine creatures).”
What I saw instead was fresh vs. frozen, wild vs. farmed, and country of origin. Unfortunately, with the exception of price, none of what I saw on the supermarket tags gave me the information I most wanted to know.
I needed help and I’d come prepared, having just received a pocket guide to choosing sustainably harvested seafood, produced by the scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The guide is regionally specific, and contains three lists of seafood: “Best Choices, Good Alternatives and Avoid.”
The recommendations focus on the environmental impacts of a given fishery. Although fish with consumption advisories due to high mercury are flagged, that fact alone doesn’t appear to affect placement on the first choice list.
I peered at my card. Haddock was on the list of second best choices, but only if caught by “hook and line;” trawled haddock was to be avoided. The person at the counter did not know how the fish was caught.
Tilapia appeared on all three lists: best if farmed in the United States, good if farmed in Central America, to be avoided if farmed in Asia. The tilapia at the counter was from South America.
Sea scallops were a best choice but cost $14.99 a pound. Bay scallops, which were less expensive, did not appear on the list.
Maine lobster was on the second best list, and, while it may be a good alternative for the planet, it’s a crummy alternative for a quick weeknight dinner.
After nearly half an hour, I found four choices that were on the best or second best list: U.S. swordfish (a second choice for environmental impacts, but also flagged for potentially high mercury), wild Alaskan salmon (a best choice and a poster child for a well-managed fishery), U.S. farmed catfish and sea scallops.
I finally made a rare splurge on sea scallops largely because after all that time mulling over my purchase I needed something I could put on the table in five minutes.
The card was almost unusable. Most of the choices didn’t mesh with what was available locally and the process was extremely time-consuming. I’m a firm believer in the idea that, to a degree, we buy the world we want to live in, but this situation was over the top.
Read the complete opinion piece from The Times Record.