Green Sushi Guide

Sushi aficionados will soon be able to make seafood choices that please the palate and safeguard the world’s ocean wildlife. Finally a green your sushi guide. In just a few days (October 22nd to be precise), three of the world’s top ocean conservation organizations – Blue Ocean Institute, Environmental Defense Fund and the Monterey Bay Aquarium – will publish guides ranking popular sushi selections based on sustainability. The guides will highlight seafood that’s caught or farmed, in ways that harm the ocean, or pose a health risk to people. All three groups promote the message that sushi choices by individual consumers have a significant impact on the future of the ocean.

“For the first time, sushi lovers have tools that enable them to join the growing movement of those making ocean-friendly choices that protect life in the seas now and for generations to come,” said Julie Pareles, executive director of Blue Ocean Institute.

There will be both pleasant surprises – and some disappointments in the sushi guide. Popular items like bluefin tuna (hon maguro/kuro maguro) and freshwater eel (unagi) are firmly on the “red” list, as is farmed salmon (sake). These species are either overfished, farmed with aquaculture methods that pollute the ocean, are caught using methods that destroy ocean habitats, or kill large numbers of other sea life. “If you care about the future of the oceans, you’ll avoid ‘red-listed’ sushi,” said Sheila Bowman, Seafood Watch outreach manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Seafood like wild-caught Alaska salmon (sake), farmed scallops (hotate) and Pacific halibut (hirame) are more sustainable choices, in part because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or – in the case of scallops – are raised using sustainable aquaculture methods.

To get a sushi guide visit:

Blue Ocean Institute: www.blueocean.org
Environmental Defense Fund: www.edf.org/seafood
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch: www.seafoodwatch.org/sushi