SEAFOOD
    Regrettably, much of the seafood available in local supermarkets comes laden with environmental problems; these relate to a number of factors:
1)    Many stocks of ocean and river species are being catastrophically over-harvested to the point that the target species or local populations are seriously endangered.  Unfortunately, our improved fishing technology has often provided us increased or maintained harvest even as the stocks are depleted, creating the illusion of a healthy resource even as depletion continues.
2)    In some cases (e.g. shrimp and tuna), the manner by which the seafood are harvested either directly devastates other species, or produces a by-catch (collection of non-target species) of waste that threatens other species.
3)    Farm-raised species are sometimes raised by techniques that themselves pose a threat to other species.  For example: the protein fed to farm-raised species often comes from fish or seafood protein caught elsewhere in the world. In such cases, our purchase of farm-raised seafood may be threatening indirectly other species as a consequence of the protein source. From the perspective of social justice, the purchase of seafood from third world countries to feed our farm-raised seafood constitutes an economic threat to third world peoples since we force the price of local protein up and potentially beyond the economic limits of protein deficient communities.

To find out about what is environmentally acceptable to buy, visit The Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the chefs in the restaurant pay attention to the source of the seafood that they make available to the public.

Page Last Updated

03/04/01 12:01 PM