Do you love seafood? Here's how to eat it responsibly

Calamari, clam chowder, crab cakes, sushi — the ocean and other bodies of water offer many beloved dishes. And the seafood in those dishes is in high demand. Roughly 179 million tons of fish were harvested in 2018, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

But our love of seafood comes with a cost. Overfishing has led to the decline of entire species, like Atlantic cod, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And destructive fishing practices have driven others, like the Maui dolphin, to near extinction.

As a consumer, it can be hard to know if the fish at the supermarket or on the menu is contributing to the degradation of marine life. That's why it's crucial to get more information about the fish you eat — especially about how it was caught and where it came from.

Your choices matter, says Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, vice president of global ocean initiatives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. When people buy sustainable fish — fish that minimize harm to our wildlife and oceans — it sends "a very clear market signal to the industry that this is what people want: healthy, responsible [fish] that's good for people and the planet."

Kemmerly, who works on Seafood Watch, the aquarium's sustainable seafood advisory list, shares three principles to consider when eating seafood.

Ask the right questions

Let's say you're at a restaurant or the fresh fish counter at the supermarket and you want to get the salmon — but you're not sure whether it's sustainable. To find out, simply ask the server or the fishmonger, says Kemmerly. Here are two key questions:

Is this fish pole or line-caught? If the answer is yes, that's usually a good sign, says Kemmerly. "Even at a commercial scale, a fishing boat can see what they just reeled in and if they caught a fish that's too small or is a different species they didn't intend [to catch], they can quickly release it."

When trawling or large nets are used to catch fish, sometimes other species are caught by accident, says Kemmerly. This is referred to in the industry as "bycatch." Fish or marine life that get caught in these nets are often considered waste and thrown overboard. According to NOAA, "these unintentionally caught animals often suffer injuries or die."

Is this fish caught in the U.S.? If so, it's probably a sustainable choice. "The U.S. has some of the most stringent regulations" of fishing in the world, Kemmerly says. For example, if fish populations are depleted, fisheries in the U.S. are required to rebuild them to sustainable levels. According to NOAA, 93% of U.S. fisheries are not overfished in 2022.

Do your research

If you're not able to ask these questions, you may need to get your answers elsewhere. For example, if you're buying frozen shrimp in the seafood aisle of the supermarket and you have limited information about its origins, apart from what it says on the package.

The good news is there are plenty of free online resources to find out whether the fish you are eating is sustainable. In addition to Seafood Watch, you can find information on the NOAA's FishWatch site or the Environmental Defense Fund's Seafood Selector tool. (Which resource you use is up to you and your personal values, advise experts in an NPR story from 2017 about seafood guides — each may offer different recommendations based on varying factors.)

All you need to do is look up the fish — say, pink shrimp from the U.S. — to get its status. According to the NOAA's website, "U.S. wild-caught pink shrimp is a smart seafood choice because it is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations." So that should give you confidence that pink shrimp is a safer choice for the environment.

Compare that to Argentine red shrimp caught in Argentina. Seafood Watch has flagged it as a fish to avoid because of concerns about bycatch.

Kemmerly recommends reading up on your go-to fish. Having the facts handy makes it easier to decide which seafood to eat without contributing to overfishing. "I love tuna, so I'm looking for predominantly U.S.-caught tuna," she says. "I also know to avoid the bluefin because their stocks are low."

Don't be swayed by seafood labels

You might see seafood labels like "wild caught" and "farm raised" when buying fish. Don't be swayed by either term when determining what to eat, says Kemmerly.

Just because a fish is "farm-raised," meaning it was raised in a pen or tank, doesn't mean it's sustainable. The same goes for a fish that is "wild-caught," or caught from their natural habitat. Knowing how a fish was harvested can be a helpful puzzle piece in determining how sustainable it is, but on their own, these labels don't provide much information. The most important factor is its impact on the environment, Kemmerly says.

Remember there are other fish in the sea

Don't be afraid to get outside of your comfort zone and try other kinds of fish. There are some tasty options outside of salmon, tuna and shrimp — the most popular fish in the U.S. — that you may be overlooking.

Like farmed mussels, says Kemmerly. They are high in protein and the environmental impact of farming them is minimal, according to Seafood Watch. Or Arctic char, a cold-water fish with a rich, flavorful taste and the same pink color as salmon. According to Seafood Watch, "the stock is considered healthy, and the fishery is managed well."

You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find. Kemmerly says she discovered sablefish when she was trying to move away from eating bluefin tuna. "It's kind of buttery. It's denser and prepares well."

There's another sustainable benefit to diversifying your palate, says Kemmerly: it helps avoid overtaxing one type of fish species.

The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

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