Thursday, March 19, 2009
Fun and Games / Good advice Take a Quiz on Sustainable Seafood
Posted by Nicki Wood on Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 10:40 AM
It's easier to aim for the sustainable choice when you know what it is. Since we're hundreds of miles from the ocean, we can be forgiven for not being fully versed in seafood stewardship.
Sierra Club has developed a seafood quiz that informs while it tests your knowledge of best seafood choices for the health of the oceans and the seafood stocks.
Here's a sample question: "You feel like eating light, but still want some tasty food, so you head over to your local sushi joint. Which type of tuna sashimi is a fresh, sustainable option?
- Bluefin "toro" tuna
- Longline-caught non-U.S. bigeye "ahi" tuna
- Longline-caught non-U.S. yellowfin "ahi" tuna
- U.S. Atlantic troll/pole caught yellowfin "ahi" tuna
- None, they're all bad"
No, I didn't know either. The answer is that US Atlantic tuna stocks are well managed, and that troll and pole methods are the best because they result in less "bycatch" or unwanted, but usually perfectly edible, fish as well as sea birds and turtles. They aren't gently released, either, the hapless bycatch. They either drown or are thrown away. And bluefin tuna are the one to avoid, as stocks are overfished that they're down 90 percent since the Seventies. Okay I'll stop.
But see how useful that is? And the quiz -- great alternative to having an environmentalist shake a finger in your face, isn't it. Take the whole quiz, and learn a whole lot, here:
http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/seafood/
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