There is so much complexity to fisheries management, those who aren’t involved in it should just acknowledge that it is a subject about which they are uninformed. My estimation of our journalistic standards has come down tremendously while watching our news media, in its various forms, cover the subject of fisheries management.

Mary Beth Tooley is absolutely right regarding farm raised product. I suggest anyone advocating for farm raised product do a little research on the subject. Throw out those seafood watch cards. Anytime a complex subject is reduced to such a simple format all kinds of problems and inconsistencies invariably develop.

I wonder how many consumers have reduced their income by 30% or more to support an environmental cause. Ask that question in a room full of U.S. fishermen and every hand will go up. Foreign fleets devastated our stocks prior to the U.S. declaring the 200 mile EEZ, poor governmental policy and management delivered the final blow thereafter. Fishermen my age (47) and younger have spent their entire youth, and then some, rebuilding the depleted fish stocks that were passed down to us. We have done more to support a good environmental cause then 9 out of 10 people in this world. So explain to me why we should be the target of some under informed environmentalists who have yet to put their money where their mouth is the way us fishermen have in the last 15 to 20 years.

If it tastes good, and you like it, buy it! Leave fisheries management to those who understand it. Ms. Grescoe is way out of her depth with this book!

Seafood is sustainable when the population of that species of fish is managed in a way that provides for today’s needs without damaging the ability of the species to reproduce and be abundant for future generations. If you buy fish managed under a U.S. fishery management plan, you can be assured it meets 10 national standards that ensure abundant fish stocks are maintained, overfishing is eliminated, and the long-term socioeconomic benefits to the nation are achieved.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/index.htm

This book is appalling! For starters, monkfish is not overfished. It is a healthy stock that supports a viable US fishery. So instead of eating healthy US seafood you’re going to swtch to vegatarian farm raised? What can you be thinking?

Throw out the book and the Seafood Watch cards and start looking up the facts. The web link above, Fish Watch, is the valuable resource you need – forget the book.

Vanessa, your new thinking about what fish to eat hardly rewards the efforts of fishermen to rebuild the stocks they rely on to make a living. Yes, there are pirates among them, as in any industry, but for the most part, fishermen are the ultimate stewards of marine resources. If you care strongly enough to make choices about what types of fish you eat based on the way they are harvested and their current biomass, you might want to dig in a little deeper. Attend a fishery management council meeting. Talk to some fishermen on the wharves. Look at the National Marine Fisheries Service site which can tell you which species are overfished or where overfishing is occurring (there is a difference!) (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/).

The seafood cards are an oversimplified answer to an extremely complicated question, and as such, miss alot that you are taking for granted. You will feel much more empowered about your seafood decisions, I assure you.