Seafood Watch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seafood Watch is a program designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. It is best known for publishing consumer guides for responsible seafood purchasing in the United States. Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and is a part of the Seafood Choices Alliance.

Seafood Watch has its roots in Monterey Bay Aquarium's Fishing for Solutions exhibit from 1997 to 1999, which produced a list of sustainable seafood. It was one of the first resources for sustainable seafood information together with the Audubon Society's What is a fish lover to eat? which also came out in the late 1990s.^[1]

The fast-growing and resilient Atlantic croaker, currently on the "best" choice list (August 2006)

It gives lists of the best seafood choices, fish to avoid, as well as "good alternatives". The "avoid" category is for seafood which is overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. Examples of fish that Seafood Watch currently (August 2006) advises consumers to avoid include Bluefin Tuna, Orange Roughy, Chilean Seabass, Atlantic Halibut, and Monkfish.

Health alerts for fish with high levels of mercury or PCBs are also noted, although they may appear in any category.

The Seafood Watch website includes both regional and country-wide guides for the United States. Pocket guides are available from the aquarium and further information is on the web site. The guides are also available in Spanish. The guides are updated twice annually, while the website is updated more often.

Recommended seafood includes Sardines, US-farmed Sturgeon (but not wild caught), Atlantic Croaker, Pacific Halibut, Wreckfish, White Seabass and Dungeness Crab.

Restaurants and retailers are also targeted with an educational program developed by Seafood Watch.

1 Similar programs worldwide
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Similar programs worldwide

Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide, and Pocket Guide, published by AMCS.

[edit] Guides and advisory lists

Marine Conservation Society (MCS), Fishonline website and Good Fish Guide (UK) and Northeast Atlantic)
Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) produces Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide, a similar consumer guide, advising consumers which species are in danger of being fished out. [1] [2]
Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, Best Fish Guide
The Blue Ocean Institute Seafood Guide, [3]. Based in New York.
Oceans Alive: Best & Worst Seafood Choices
Audubon Society's National Seafood Wallet Card (USA)
Monterey Fish Market Seafood advisory list (West Coast, USA)
Canada’s Seafood Guide (SeaChoice), initiative of Sustainable Seafood Canada
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) Consumer Guide To Prawns

[edit] Certification and labelling

The Marine Stewardship Council has a certification program for consumer seafood products, and lists certified products on its website [4]
Ocean Wise, a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program certifying restaurants, and publishing a dining guide.
Ocean Wise Australia, to be launched by the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2007, is an offshoot of Vancouver's Ocean Wise program.
Sustainable Fishery Advocates operates the FishWise program for labelling seafood by retailers.
Earth Island Institute's Friends of the Sea certification scheme for products from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Also an SMS-based seafood sustainability advisory service.