Something fishy

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There’s already the Seafood Choices Alliance and the Seafood Watch program sponsored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and now the federal government is getting involved. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the main government organization for overseeing marine science, has developed a FishWatch website to help consumers research their seafood choices. At this point, there are only a couple of dozen species listed, but the pages are rich in links to other information for the fish geeks among us. However, don’t expect any advice nearly as cut and dried as the “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives” and “Avoid” categories from Monterey Bay. And the NOAA site tends to be more optimistic about seafood populations than either Monterey Bay or Seafood Choices. Only six species have warnings that they are either being or have been overfished — Atlantic cod, summer flounder, some red groupers, haddock, red snapper and yellowfin tuna.

-- Russ Parsons