The tuna sandwich is a social faux pas. Sustainable eating includes seafood, too!

Recently we’ve been talking a lot about a topic within sustainability that’s a language we can all relate to– food! We released our Sustainable Cooking Guide, which is chock-full of energy conservation tips, stories and recipes for everyone who loves eating and wants to keep their impact under control.
For all the data-lovers out there, we also published a white paper about FOODprints called “The American Carbon Foodprint: Understanding and Reducing your Food’s Impact on Climate Change.” The average American’s carbon foodprint is 6.1 tons of CO2e a year. That’s more than the combined impact of all their driving and flying. That means you can start eating your way to a healthy climate. The seven take-home tips on our previous post are a good place to start.
Now on to the tuna sandwich. The oceans are a crucial part of our planet’s ecosystem and destructive overfishing is rampant. Scientific American predicts overfishing could take seafood off the menu by 2048, with a total collapse of world around 2048. Seafood is not something everyone can relate to, but if you’re a buyer and consumer of seafood I’m here to give you the run-down on what’s responsible and what’s not.
There are some great Seafood Guides out there to help you stop contributing to this problem: The Monterey Bay Aquarium has pocket-sized Seafood Watch Guides you can print out and keep in your wallet. These guides are get updated and they’re based on what region of the U.S. you live in. There’s also a Sushi Guide and a National Guide.
The Environmental Defense Fund has a three part list of Eco-Best, Eco-Ok and Eco-Worst commercially sold fish. (A.K.A. what you’d buy in a store or restaurant, not freshwater or sport fish).
Over at the Blue Ocean Institute, there’s a seafood guide where you can search by your favorite fish and see the environmental ranking. They say “Chefs are the gatekeepers of the seafood industry” because 70% of the revenue generated by seafood sales in the United States occurs in restaurants and catering services, and they even have a program with Chefs Collaborative for chefs and culinary students: oceanfriendlychefs.org.
The good thing is, you won’t be alone alone in making an effort to choose more sustainable seafood. My family and I have kept these cards in our wallets for the last few years, British chef Jamie Oliver stopped using bluefin tuna and recently Target stores stopped selling farmed salmon. More and more restaurants have sustainable seafood options on their menu in Washington, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Maura at Fresh Greens shared a few good rules of thumb to remember about seafood:
- Always avoid bluefin tuna, bigeye tuna, Atlantic halibut, European eel, and any species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
- The smaller the fish, the more sustainable it is, and often, the healthier it is for you – so give those sardines a try.
Moreover, aside from eating or not eating seafood, everyone can contribute to ocean health by avoiding plastic. Beth’s blog Fake Plastic Fish is a great place to get inspired.
photo credit: environmentalfolly.blogspot.com
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