Sustainable Sushi!

Sure, you love sushi, who doesn’t? Well, I do know a few people who quiver just at the thought of it. The thing is, most of the world loves fish.

Three environmental groups have just made eating sushi better for the “sushi lover with an environmental conscience”. The groups have come up with pocket guides to sushi, listing seafood according to sustainability. But with each of them, a little studying before sitting down at a sushi bar might be a good idea.

The recommendations in the guides can be challenging because more than just the name of the fish must be known. For some popular fish, like tuna and salmon, the exact variety determines the rating; tuna must not be bluefin, big-eye or yellowfin. For albacore tuna, the fishing method matters. Wild Pacific salmon is approved but farm-raised salmon is not. It can be a bit confusing, but also quite informative. For example, mackerel is in but octopus is out. And bluefin tuna, known as the king of sushi for its fatty meat, is a definite no-no.

The guides from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (seafoodwatch.org), the Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), and the Blue Ocean Institute (blueocean.org) all agree on which fish are sustainable, but present the information in different ways.

The first sustainability guides are specifically for sushi, listing fish by their Japanese and English names. The guides will be introduced this week at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan and on Oct. 22 at San Francisco’s Tataki, (the first U.S. sustainable sushi restaurant).

And check this out, the aquarium is sponsoring a weeklong “virtual sushi party” starting Oct. 22nd. Cohorts will be asked to take a pocket guide with them when ordering sushi, then log onto Facebook to compare notes. As if you needed another excuse for eating sushi!

FYI, the guides will be available online in a format that can be printed or downloaded to a phone starting on Oct. 22. Make sure to pick one up!