Chilean Sea Bass, aka Patagonian Toothfish

As “flexitarians,” Lee and I eat mostly vegetarian, but do like to have sustainably harvested fish a couple of times a week. Part of our motivation is the protein and Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are good for our health. Personally, with the current pace of overfishing I don’t want to wake up one day and realize that all the fish are gone from our oceans, and I didn’t experience them while they were still here on Earth.

As the demand for fish — especially top-of-the-food-chain predator fish like tuna and swordfish — causes commercial fishing boats to send their lines deeper and deeper, they are catching more and more of what they call “bycatch” fish. Catching these fish has a cost in time and resources, so fisherman are highly motivated to create new markets for these previously unknown fish.

The fish marketed as Chilean Sea Bass is actually Patagonian Toothfish that is pulled up from the deep waters by tuna lines, and the campaign to sell this previously worthless bycatch fish was so successful that Patagonian Toothfish is now overfished itself.

Now Introducing: Escolar

Escolar, The Ex-Lax Fish

According to Bonnie Sui, Escolar is the latest repackaged bycatch species being pushed by fishmongers and upscale restaurants. Escolar, also known as ”white tuna,” “butterfish,” “rudderfish,” and “Hawaiian walu,” is apparently known for being “rich and silky, with a uniform white smoothness that was almost unreal.”

Unfortunately, eating Escolar may cause a (finger quotes in air) “purgative effect” in some people. Says Bonnie:

“The buttery fish is actually a kind of snake mackerel, a deep-sea bottom-feeder full of a wax ester that accounts for its dreamy velvety texture. Unfortunately, that oil is not digestible by humans and causes severe gastrointestinal distress in some people. It has earned escolar the nickname ‘Ex-Lax fish.’ “

Think the same effect as eating too many Fat-Free Pringles. (Anyone remember the launch of Olestra?) One more reason to always carry your handy Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Pocket Guide.

Flickr Photo by Harvard Avenue

When I became a vegetarian in 2001, I knew that I wanted to keep some seafood in my diet, but only that which was sustainably harvested.

From that point forward, I vowed that I would not eat any fish or seafood that was being harvested to extinction, harvested in a way that damaged habitat, or full of poisonous chemicals.

With so little information available in restaurants and supermarkets, I just didn’t eat any fish for about a year and a half!

Seafood Guides

My salvation came in the form of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch project, which publishes handy regional pocket guides that list fish in easy-to-understand Green, Yellow and Red categories.

Every time I sent a waiter back to the kitchen to ask about the fish on the menu, I knew I had done my part, even if he didn’t come back with the answer I wanted to hear. Management was starting see that there was a demand for sustainable seafood.

Note for the nerd herd: you can now download the Seafood Guide for your iPhone!

New Eco-Label for Wild Seafood

While I felt like I was earning extra brownie points for whipping out my seafood guide in stores, it is still requires extra effort.  Why can’t this information just be on the label?

Well, my wish has come true. The Seafood Watch project just announced a new label system for wild fish from the Marine Stewardship Council:

When it comes to seafood, the bright blue eco-label of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been an important part of European seafood shoppers’ experience for years – and it’s growing in recognition here in the United States. Consumers like you can feel confident that this label is the most credible sustainable seafood eco-label in the marketplace today.

Right now this label only applies to seafood that comes from wild fisheries — which is the best source for predatory fish like salmon. (Did you know that it takes three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon?)

Farmed Seafood is Next

But what about other fish that do well in aquaculture?

Lee and I have become quite fond of Tilapia, which is a good choice for farmed fish because they provide more protein than it takes to raise them. But we know to avoid Tilapia that comes from China and Taiwan, where pollution and weak management are common.

When will there be a label for farmed fish? Soon, we hope. The World Wildlife Fund, which co-founded the MSC, recently announced it plans to develop a similar Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) for farm-raised seafood.

Our good friend Amy and her brother Darren cooked up an amazing Chinese New Year Feast.  I’m not sure how I got roped into cooking the pork (and it looked pretty tasty), but I was pretty psyched to get some wok time.

By the time the vegetarian food had its turn, I was drooling like a dog.  (Are those mushrooms? Yea!)

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Thanks Art and Amy and everyone else for another great feast at Monkey Fresh.