Sustainable Seafood 101: What's Safe to Eat?

Cynthia Nims goes in search of an answer to the nagging seafood question: “Is this OK to eat?”

I’ve been writing about seafood since the early 1990s when I began working at Simply Seafood magazine, but I took a big, deep breath as I started writing this article. The story of seafood sustainability just keeps getting bigger, more complex and more confusing. It can make the simple decision of what to order for dinner a daunting one. “Now what was that thing I heard on NPR the other day?” you ask yourself. “Did they say it was ahi or mahi mahi that I’m supposed to avoid now?”

What comes into play when measuring seafoods for sustainability is no short list: species, where it’s caught (sometimes subsets of a region where it’s caught), how it’s caught, age at which it’s caught, bycatch (other species inadvertently caught with the target species), environmental impact and livelihoods of those catching the fish—and that’s just for starters. Consider, too, that many constituents, from trade groups to environmentalists, have something to say, often passionately, on the subject of what seafoods we should and shouldn’t eat.

But we are here to help you make sense of the sustainability choices, especially when dining out.
In the Northwest, we’re fortunate that most of the seafoods commercially caught in the region are considered sustainable, so going local is often a guilt-free choice.

Patricia Eddy, cofounder of the Seattle locavore blog Cook Local, notes that while “local” strongly guides her buying decisions, if it ever came to an either/or choice for seafood, “sustainable” would trump “local.” “When the fish are gone, they’re gone,” she says, noting that she’s willing to make the fossil-fuel tradeoff if it helps save a species.

Sushi seems to have some sort of “get out of jail free” card when it comes to the sustainability conversation—which may be why popular West Seattle sushi spot Mashiko gained attention last summer for shifting its menu to feature only sustainable seafoods. Sure, we’re on board to nix monkfish and Chilean sea bass from our diets, but to not have unagi (freshwater eel) or otoro (fatty tuna belly) on our next visit to a sushi bar? Preposterous!

In fact, a number of sushi-bar favorites are among the more challenged fish in the sea. Mashiko owner Hajime Sato stepped up to show that delicious alternatives are plentiful, such as the delicate sablefish liver from well-managed stocks in the North Pacific, which he serves in place of monkfish liver. (Monkfish is a red-list fish; methods used to harvest it can damage habitat and other species.)

When you’re dining out, follow Sato’s lead and mix it up a bit to help relieve the strain on seafood supplies. Get out of that salmon-tuna-shrimp rut and choose something new. Sure, you love ahi tuna—everyone does, which is part of the reason the health of that species (two, actually, yellowfin and bigeye) is in trouble today. Try anchovies, carted over fresh from Westport. They may not sound sexy, but they sure are delicious when Ethan Stowell prepares them, dusted with flour, lightly fried and served with an herb aioli, as I recently experienced them at Union.

With your awareness now piqued, start asking questions about seafood items on the menu when you’re eating out. Ask where the fish is from, how it was caught. If the server, even after a trip to the kitchen to ask, can’t provide a clear and confident answer, it’s obvious the restaurant is not paying attention. While there is no one “right” answer to hear (though troll-caught is a thumbs-up method, and many Asian imports are considered non-sustainable), the lack of an answer speaks volumes.

Remember, too, that aquaculture—the practice of raising seafood in farms—isn’t always a dirty word. Virtually all the oysters, clams and mussels we eat have been farm-raised and are deemed sustainable. They’re filter feeders (thereby improving the quality of our water), seldom given feed or drugs (adding no waste byproducts to the water) and have very little negative impact on the environment in which they’re grown. And many farmed fish also are given “best” or “good” status on Seafood Watch lists put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which monitors sustainable seafood practices. Most farmed salmon, however, remains a lightning rod for criticism, largely because of its environmental impact, including feed waste (which can carry antibiotics that affect water quality) and development of disease and parasites that can pass to wild fish.

“There are not enough fish out there to feed the whole world,” Kevin Davis, chef/owner of Steelhead Diner, tells me. After his stint at former seafood powerhouse Oceanaire, he’s gained some strong perspective on the seafood scenario. “We need to shore up our consumption of wild fish with good resources of farmed fish being raised properly, thoughtfully.” Advances in aquaculture practices are making great strides toward cleaner, more sustainable products. Every chef I spoke with believes as Davis does, that we need to embrace aquaculture when it is done right.

All this raises the question of what sustainability itself means. I’ve heard countless definitions from many sources over the years. One of the best is “living off the earth’s interest, not its principle.” We’ve sure learned our lesson about the soundness of that concept in the financial realm. Applied to the oceans, that approach will pay back dividends with revived wild stocks and sustainably farmed seafood to keep seafood lovers satisfied for generations to come.

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The Northwest Sustainable Watch List
Arming yourself with information makes for easier decision-making in the search for sustainable seafood.

The well-respected Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists are a sort of Consumer Reports for the concerned seafood lover, rating sustainability and concerns about mercury levels and other contaminants of many types of seafood.

The Seafood Watch lists are available in some seafood markets as well as online (seafoodwatch.org) where you can download free pocket guides, and as an iPhone app (other mobile phone users can go to mobile.seafoodwatch.org for a portable version).

The Seafood Watch lists color code seafoods according to sustainability. Organized by geographic regions (plus one dedicated to sushi), the printed pocket guides are updated twice a year (online versions are continuously updated).

In the 10 years since the Seafood Watch program was launched, it has distributed 32 million guides.



More dining and food articles from the December issue of Seattle magazine: