Section » Fish
The water wars: California’s salmon vs. agribiz interests
By Paul Johnson Chinook salmon fishing has been scaled way back in California. Photo: Zureks/Wikimedia I've been selling fish for 30 years, and I'm pleased that my store, the Monterey Fish Market, has a reputation for exceptionally fresh and sustainably sourced seafood.
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Here’s the catch: More sustainable seafood requires exerting pressure up the supply chain
This is part 2 of a series on improving market-based seafood sustainability initiatives, inspired by a recent article published by an international team of researchers in "Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation." (See Oryx volume 44, pp. 45-56 doi:10.1017/S0030605309990470.
Why seafood wallet cards can be the wrong bait for consumers
Seafood guides and other consumer-based campaigns are an important part of the quest for sustainable seafood and healthy oceans, but so far they have not shown enough positive results: bigger efforts are needed. That’s the main conclusion of a new article, "Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based
Food & Wine magazine sins against the monkfish
A monkfish (Wikimedia Commons) In the January 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine,
Tuna or not-tuna: more questions for sushi eaters
When you think about eating endangered species, you might imagine going to Chinatown to some secret restaurant — or to the ones operated by shadowy mobsters like in the 1990 comedy "
The little fish that we can: California’s sardine industry, now and then
When the subject of Monterey, California, comes up, most people think of two things: the magnificent scenery and the peerless aquarium. I think of a third: sardines. Two days after Thanksgiving, I took a day trip to
There Be Dragons: Examining the alternatives to unsustainable aquaculture fish feed
February 23, 2010 update: I discovered that the credit for the grasshopper photo was incorrect. The photo is actually from tazintosh's Flickr collection and the photo's Flickr page is
Scientists monitor tuna by measuring toxins
Toxins tell tuna's tale: The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) population is split into two groups, with the 45 degree meridian acting as a rough dividing line. Some fish swim across the line to feed or spawn, and scientists and fishery managers would like to know how many fish make the ocean
New research on aquaculture industry reveals murky waters surrounding fish-feed issue
The products of aquaculture, the farming of sea creatures and plants, are often divided into "bad fish" — piscavores, like salmon, that eat more pounds of protein in the form of other fish than they yield — and "good fish," omnivores like tilapia and carp that can survive on plant matter. A new
Scientists gain understanding of mercury transport in the Pacific Ocean
Mercury goes with the flow: Pacific-caught tuna is one of the major sources of mercury in the U.S. diet, and so scientists are trying to understand how tuna pick up mercury. Mercury levels in the eastern North Pacific (where a significant fraction of albacore tuna are caught) have been rising recently,
Why catch-shares and ITQs will not solve overfishing problems
Catch-share no catch-all solution to ocean's troubles: Law professor Rebecca Bratspies has an excellent, if acronym-heavy essay about how privatizing the seas through the use of "catch-shares," also known as individualized transferrable quotas (ITQs), is a troubling solution to the grave problem of overfishing
U.S. fleet irresponsibly increases bigeye tuna catch in Pacific
U.S. bigeyes too big for sustainable plate: Although scientists are urging an immediate reduction in bigeye tuna catches to protect the species, and most nations are planning on reducing their bigeye catches by 10% per year, the U.S.-flagged fleet (which partly consists of recently re-flagged vessels
Educating the public about toxins in white croaker fish
Don't croak early, SoCal fishermen!: Thanks to unregulated dumping of DDT and PCBs into Southern California sewers between the 1950s and '70s, fish caught off-shore from Los Angeles can have high concentrations of toxins. The white croaker, a fish popular with SoCal's Asian community, is particularly
The lesson of ‘less’: Why ‘The End of the Line’ seafood documentary doesn’t go far enough
By Twilight Greenaway I walked out of the screening of “The End of the Line” feeling deeply uneasy. Most of my discomfort had been carefully orchestrated by the film’s director, Rupert Murray, who filled the 80 minutes with straight-talking scientists and
Boston-area residents snap up Community Supported Fishery program
Ah, but there's a catch: Taking a cue from Community Supported Agriculture programs, fishing groups in the Northeast are letting consumers buy shares in exchange for weekly allotments of local, fresh catch. Nearly 1,000 Boston-area residents will receive their first batch of wild-caught fish this month
