The Catch: the amazing story of the Patagonian Toothfish
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.24.05
What an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. This remarkable article in the New York Times Magazine tells the story of the Patagonian Toothfish, discovered by Chilean fishermen after Pinochet opens up their traditional markets to foreign factory fishing operations, renamed to the more attractive Chilean Sea Bass. It then becomes the darling of the restauranteurs because of its unusual fattiness that makes it easy to cook and serve. "you can overcook it by five minutes and it is delicious. You can saute it, steam it, grill it- it is a no-brainer" Then, in the space of five years it goes from "dish of the year" to overfished pariah. Now we are looking at a future of farmed fish (where three pounds of inch long forage fish and marine mammals are ground up and fed to every pound of farmed fish) or moving down the food chain to invertebrates and perhaps even plankton gruel.
We often think about giving up meat; giving up fish will be harder but it looks inevitable. ::New York Times (may require free subscription)
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Treehugger should do more than "think" about giving up meat. Meat - particulary the way it is produced in the USA - is an unmitigated environmental disaster. (At least they use EVRY part of the cow!) Stepping away from it is more Eco Friendly than 9/10 products that you will ever feature here.
Another reason to consider minimizing your seafood intake: Mercury poisoning.
Last week, ABC posted this story about a film/TV actress who has described her own ordeal with this after switching to a high-seafood diet:
ABC News
Pretty scary!
First of all farmed fish don't have to be fed fishmeal diets. In fact there is a company in Ohio making great progress at selling alternatives - http://www.freedomfeeds.com
Next, Salmon, and other high on the food chain fishes should be considered at best a luxury food. They are certainly more expensive to produce. Instead, take a look at Tilapia (extraordinarily delicious), which is an algae and plant consumer and rather low on the food chain. Or take a look at mussels or scallops or other filtering algae eaters.
I think folks should avoid wild caught fishes, some of these, like Salmon consume more than a gallon of diesel fuel for every pound caught. The wild caught fishery is not sustainable, is not scalable, and is devestating our planet.
The whole mercury thing, from what I've read, seems to be a lot of hype. Perhaps the issue to concerns about consuming mercury from fishes isn't so much eating less fish, but campaigning to release less mercury into the environment.
"The whole mercury thing, from what I've read, seems to be a lot of hype. Perhaps the issue to concerns about consuming mercury from fishes isn't so much eating less fish, but campaigning to release less mercury into the environment."
I'd recommend doing both, though as a vegetarian I obviously eat no fish.