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What Color Is Your Fish?
By Karen Solomon
A team from UC Santa Cruz's ocean sciences department is making waves with FishWise, a project of the nonprofit Sustainable Fishery Advocates. Recently, they introduced color-coded signs for grocery stores to use to identify fish as sustainable (green), of concern (yellow), or unsustainable (red). Before assigning a color, SFA assesses the health and size of a species' population, what, if any, types of sea life may have been destroyed during its harvest (known as bycatch), and the amount of pollution in the water where the fish was caught. According to SFA executive director and cofounder Shelly Benoit, "People are asking more questions and want to know just what it is that they're buying. There are at least 25 different types of fish marketed as red snapper—only some of which are sustainable." For now, look for FishWise labeling at New Leaf Community Market, Good Earth Natural Foods, the Natural Grocery Company, and, as FishWise broadens its net, Lunardi's, Mollie Stone's, Draeger's, and Andronico's. |