Christmas is a week away, so perhaps you’re starting to plan out
your special holiday meal. If seafood is on the menu, may we
remind you that there are many tasty options available that will
please your dinner guests while also let you feel good as a
responsible consumer. The issue: many species of fish are
seriously “overfished,” meaning that they are being caught at a
rate faster than they can reproduce – to the point that the
species’ continued existence actually may be in peril. That’s
bad. When you hear the term “sustainable seafood,” that is
seafood that is being caught in numbers or by methods that will
allow for those species to thrive. That’s good. Other issues of
concern: some methods for harvesting seafood cause lasting
habitat damage; some methods catch (often fatally) fish, birds,
turtles and marine mammals by mistake; and in some countries,
regulation of the fishing industry is weak or non-existence.
But, as a consumer, how do you know if you should buy cod or
swordfish? Or even more confusingly