Find sustainable seafood now
Eating seafood sustainably involves knowing which fish are harvested in an environmentally-friendly manner and which are not. The organizations below feature online seafood guides on sustainable fish choices and fish to avoid. All three also offer free, pocket sized “seafood cards” you can print out and take with you to the store or your favorite seafood restaurant.
| Blue Ocean Institute's Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood | has information on sustainability and health issues |
| Environmental Defense Seafood Selector | now with new information on health and contaminants |
| Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Cards | printable guide to sustainable species in your region |
| Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) | sustainable seafood certification |
Why it’s important
Overfishing and destructive fishing methods are taking a toll on the world’s fish.The oceans may seem infinite and inexhaustible, but useful fishing areas are relatively confined—centered around coastal areas where both human and fish populations congregate. In recent decades, the strain of keeping up with human demand is stretching many fisheries to the breaking point. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, over two-thirds of the world’s major fisheries are fished at or 
beyond sustainable limits, or in some cases have already been fished out.
The precipitous decline in so many of the world’s fisheries is not just a response to human need, but also the result of human disregard for the delicate complexities of aquatic ecosystems in our eagerness to exploit the resource. Technological advances in the past few decades have enabled the world’s fishing fleet to maximize its catch. Unfortunately, the focus has been on increasing volume at any cost, not on reducing waste or fostering a more sustainable relationship with the world’s fisheries.
Commercial fleets have increasingly invested in trawl nets and dredges that rake the ocean floor in a process more akin to clearcutting than fishing, sweeping up unwanted flora and fauna along with the desired catch, obliterating seabed habitat in the process. Some overfished stocks can recover, but the devastation wreaked by deep sea trawlers make this difficult. The consequent disruption of biological balance in aquatic ecosystems is critically impairing the natural ability of fish to survive and reproduce.
Seafood guides such as those listed above provide consumers and sellers the tools they need to begin choosing better managed and more abundant fish, in the process decreasing the burden on the world’s fisheries.
Learn more
A wealth of information on seafood issues can be found on the Monterey Bay Aquarium, National Audubon Society and Environmental Defense seafood sites:
Learn more about the Conscious Consumer Marketplace.
If you would like for your company to be listed in the Conscious Consumer Marketplace, please email Mary Jo Snavely or call 301.891.3683 ext. 110.