Tips on Eating Sustainable Seafood ~ Recipes Included

If you're like me, you may be looking for ways to eat seafood without doing further damage to the environment. It's tough knowing how to make the right decisions and information can often seem contradictory.

When it comes down to it, we can do some research, but then we have to make a choice. The time of reckoning happens when we write out the grocery list and do our food shopping or go out to a restaurant and order our meal.

At a certain point we have to stop worrying whether or not we made the right decision and know that we tried our best. It's not like we won't have the chance for a "do over" as we become more informed. Each time we decide on a meal, we can adapt our behavior and make a real difference.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch has a list of seafood ratings that gives some guidance about how to choose sustainable seafood. See the ratings below.

Best Choice: Seafood in this category is abundant, well-managed and caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.

Good Alternative: These items are an option, but there are concerns with how they're caught or farmed-or with the health of their habitat due to other human impacts.

Avoid: Take a pass on these items for now. They are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.

There are listings of seafood where you can click to see the rating. The ratings include where the seafood was harvested.

Take shrimp for example. "When buying small shrimp for salad or shrimp cocktail, pink shrimp from Oregon is considered a "Best Choice" and is certified as sustainable to the standard of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)."

Recipes for each seafood include hints from the chef. The recipe for Scallop and Shrimp Thai Green Curry has a note stating, "Most imported shrimp is on the "Avoid" list, so be sure to look for shrimp from the U.S or Canada. The frozen food section of your store often offers the widest selection."

For more sustainable seafood recipes take a look here.

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