Make sustainable seafood choices

Steve Carey August 22, 2010 Times Colonist

Right now, you can walk into a store and buy wild sockeye salmon. But depending on where it came from -- B.C., Alaska or Russia -- it might be from a fishery on the verge of collapse. So how does a consumer know what's green and what isn't when it comes to seafood?

A number of grocery chains and restaurants are partnering with seafood certification programs, such as SeaChoice or Ocean Wise. SeaChoice uses a retailer-first approach, working with retailers such as Overwaitea to carry sustainable seafood.

"SeaChoice works with retailers and people who procure the seafoods to look at what the most sustainable fisheries are, what the most sustainable seafoods are, and work in the marketplace to let producers know they need to change the way they're fishing, or else they'll lose their market," says Bill Wareham, the senior marine conservation specialist at the David Suzuki Foundation. "We're also trying to get the federal government to put in tighter regulations around seafood labelling, to make it easier for the consumer to know what's sustainable and what isn't."

Read the full story in The Times Colonist