Good Magazine posted this excellent infographic last week that should help people decide what fish to buy at the market to promote sustainable fishing. (You’ll definitely need to visit the link to see the full-sized chart, which is huge) The data comes from the Monterey Aquarium in California, which tracks fishing stocks nationally.
It breaks down the information according to geographical regions, but there’s not a lot of difference between most of them other than some obvious differences between Pacific and Atlantic species. Even a quick glance will tell you, though, that most of the popular varieties — cod, haddock, flounder — are nowhere to be found, since those are the most overfished species. Oddly, the Northeast chart lists “spiny lobster” but not “Maine lobster”, even though the lobster population here isn’t particularly stressed and is actually on its way to a second year of overabundance, but maybe that’s just a mistake on the part of the infographic makers. I also notice that swordfish is back on the “okay to eat” list after having been the focus of an embargo by some restaurant chefs a couple of years ago.
