Choose Safe, Sustainable Seafood Smaller fish that...

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Choose Safe, Sustainable Seafood
Smaller fish that are lower on the food chain, herbivorous fish in particular, tend to be plentiful and better for your health because they contain less mercury. And they offer plenty of great options for grilling, whether squid, macke rel, catfish, sardines, or barrimundi. For recipes, check out NRDC’s Sustainable Seafood Guide – try the “Fish Tacos with Grilled Corn,” a mouthwatering South-of-the-Border take on grilling. This guide also provides questions to ask when purchasing any of the five most popular five in the United States, including shrimp, salmon, tilapia, pollock and canned tuna, as well as a shopping guide, a list of higher and lower mercury fish, and information about sustainable fishing.

If you can purchase seafood from a Marine Stewardship Council-certified fishery, do so; MSC certification is rigorous and not easily awarded. EcoFish and Wild Planet Foods are retailers that only sell sustainable seafood products, and can ship them directly to you if there isn’t a nearby store that sells the same product.

Where those options aren’t available, seek out fish caught locally in preference to those caught outside the United States. American seafood isn’t perfect, but the U.S. variety of a particular type of fish is generally better than its imported counterpart because this country has stricter fishing and farming standards than do other parts of the world.

Photo: Another Pint Please/Flickr