August 3rd, 2007 by: Ashley Cecil Email this to a friend

“I’ll have the endangered Mahi Mahi please.”

Jump to Comments


oil canvas approximately 18″ x 24″ (canvas not yet on a stretcher)
SOLD
See all artwork available for sale.

Thanks to Nedra Weinreich for recommending Seafood Watch as a natural fit for this oil painting (previously posted in an earlier stage). Seafood Watch is “a program of Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. [They] recommend which seafood to buy or avoid, helping consumers to become advocates for environmentally friendly seafood.”

I’ve heard tidbits of information about the snowballing damage unsustainable overfishing has created. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization states that “fish currently provide at least 20 percent of the animal protein needs of over 2.5 billion people in the world.” That’s a big order to fill when “nearly a quarter of commercial species have already been over-exploited, with a total 70% of species now being fished close to, at, or beyond their capacity.” CNNMoney.com cited a “recent study projecting that the world’s commercially harvested fish populations could collapse by 2048.”

Seafood Watch offers an incredibly user-friendly website allowing you to search for seafood by name or region. The site provides detailed information about the best alternatives, and how and where each type of seafood is caught.

For example, this is the search result for Halibut:

Atlantic Halibut Avoid: Avoid these products for now. These fish come from sources that are overfished or fished or farmed in ways that harm the environment.
U.S. and Canada Wild-Caught
California Halibut Good Alternative: These are good alternatives to the best choices column. There are some concerns with how they are fished or farmed – or with the health of their habitats due to other human impacts. Monterey halibut, Chicken halibut, Southern halibut U.S. Pacific Ocean Hook-and-line or bottom trawl
California Halibut Avoid: Avoid these products for now. These fish come from sources that are overfished or fished or farmed in ways that harm the environment. Monterey halibut, Chicken halibut, Southern halibut U.S. Pacific Ocean Set Gillnet
Pacific Halibut Best Choice: These fish are abundant, well managed and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.
U.S. and Canada Wild-Caught
Atlantic Soles Avoid: Avoid these products for now. These fish come from sources that are overfished or fished or farmed in ways that harm the environment. Atlantic halibut, American plaice, Dab U.S. Atlantic Ocean Trawl-Caug

It’s easy to claim ignorance is bliss (until now), but we have to own up to such devastating consequences. Clearly there’s a reason way we pay out the wazoo for most of seafood on the “avoid” list.

Ps - Just for the record, in spite of what this painting conveys, I’m not recommending that you eat Koi as an alternative. ;)

No Comments

Filed under Environmental, Nonprofit

Leave a Reply