Coral

Gorgonian Coral

Gorgonian Coral by Timothy G. Laman

If you want to see a coral reef, I recommend booking your tickets soon since they’re dying quickly from natural causes (made worse by people) and human causes.

Overfishing removes too many of the fish that eat seaweed, which then starts growing like crazy and poisons the corals.  Since coral reefs are important nurseries for many of the fish we like to eat, overfishing creates a nasty situation: not only are stocks suffering from too much fishing, it’s even harder to replace stocks because by removing the fish, we destroy their nurseries.

Does anyone know what fish are ok to eat from a sustainability perspective?  I would really rather not give up sushi.

To cheer you up, I recommend reading about how baby corals find a reef.

Comments

  1. Mike says:

    I’m thinking about going to the Great Barrier Reef soon, as in my lifetime it will be gone.

    Tilapia is a fairly sustainable fish to eat, although there are problems as well with farmed fish.

    We had garlic alfredo tilapia recently, and it was quite tasty.

  2. Theo says:

    Goldfish? Beta fish? You could make teeny tiny sushi rolls…

  3. Sarah says:

    Seafood Watch, run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, is the best program for what fish is ok where (and when) that I’ve seen around. US only, but they offer regional cards – and a sushi card! I have some, somewhere, but they’ve probably updated since then. I keep the app on my iphone these days for quick reference.

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