From Wave to Table: Sustainable Seafood 101

You want to eat in an environmen-tally friendly way, but it can be tough to know what to do. Should you, for example, buy the wild-caught bigeye tuna or the farmed tilapia? Would it be better to order wild salmon or opt for scallops? Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 2009 Seafood Watch Guide for Hawai‘i can help guide you through these muddled waters. The guide is broken down into three categories: best choices, which are abundantly available and are caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways; good alternatives, which are still decent options, but involve some concerns about how they’re farmed or caught; and the fish you may want to avoid because they’re caught or farmed in ways that damage the marine environment. The categories are not rigid absolutes—depending on the season, where the fish is from or how it’s caught, the species could appear in more than one column. Don’t be afraid to ask your local fishmongers and chefs where the seafood in their cases or on their menus is from, whether it’s farmed or wild-caught, and how it was caught.

To download the Seafood Watch pocket guide, visit www.seafoodwatch.org. Sushi and other regional guides are also available, as is a handy (and free!) iPhone application available through the iTunes Store.