World Oceans Day: Hook Line and Sinker

Here are all the resources you need to shop and dine on sustainable seafood, plus how to cast the net a little wider on behalf our the world's oceans.

That the world’s oceans are in crisis is a common message these days. But the severity of the warning has increased and the call to action has never been more urgent. Recent research has painted a shocking portrait of just how depleted the world’s fishstocks truly are. But it’s not only that species are being overfished beyond the point of recovery; the more unexpected news is that our oceans are sicker than ever because of the effects of global warming. Alanna Mitchell, former Globe & Mail science and environment reporter, is the author of the new international best seller, Sea Sick: Global Oceans In Crisis. As her book points out, our climate is regulated by the ocean’s current, winds and water-cycle activity. Yet, she argues, our carbon dependency, and its impact on climate, is altering everything about the world’s oceans—including temperature, salinity, acidity, ice cover, volume, circulation and the life within the seas.

While this is dire news, there is, in fact, a silver lining: Reducing one’s carbon footprint for the sake of the oceans is something everyone can do. It’s also relatively easy to change our eating habits. By consuming only fish and seafood that are sustainably harvested, we can make significant progress in saving our seas from peril. “Taking fish out of the ocean impairs the ocean's ability to maintain its chemistry” says Mitchell.

In honour of World Ocean’s Day, here’s a roundup of the new campaigns, resources and things you can do to help bail out the oceans.

Recognizing sustainable seafood

Seafood Guide: Handy seafood guides are now available to help direct you to the most sustainable seafood options when at the table or the counter. Canada’s Seafood Guide, produced by Sea Choice, is an essential wallet reference complete with “stoplight red” colour coding of species to explicitly avoid and “green-for-go” for your safest picks. You may be surprised to find that commonly available fish options make the red list. The Guide also lists the questions you need to be asking your local fishmonger or waiter—powerful way to signal to them that customers care about the origin of food they are eating.

Sushi Guide: Sea Choice has also recently released a sushi guide.

A Good Catch: The sustainable seafood cookbook A Good Catch is a collection of recipes from some of Canada’s top chefs that feature fish on Sea Choice’s “green-for-go” list.

Ocean Wise: Local programs like Vancouver's Ocean Wise program are being put in place to encourage restaurants and food establishments to buy only ocean-friendly fish and help consumers make informed choices and how to avoid fish on the endangered list. Vote with your wallet by supporting local shops and restaurants that stock and serve greener fish.

Campaigns: Rescuers Wanted!

The reality of overfishing was gruesomely showcased in the new documentary End of the Line, which exposed the inability of governments to protect the oceans from being emptied. It offered a visually and scientifically persuasive argument for mobilizing citizens to better protect our oceans by choosing wisely among seafood options and by supporting campaigns that are working toward solutions.

Seafood Tour: Greenpeace Canada recently launched the Seafood Tour, aimed at convincing Canada’s major supermarket chains to stop selling redlist species (i.e., the seafood that is the most threatened by overharvesting). Greenpeace’s new 2009 Supermarket Ranking grades Canada’s eight major supermarkets on their progress in providing Canadians with seafood that is sustainably caught and farmed. It concludes that not all retailers are stepping up to the plate: While Loblawsranks the highest, and is actively designing a new policy to selling only sustainable seafood, stores such as Metro rank extremely poorly.

Marine Mysteries of British Columbia: Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the World Wildlife Fund Canada are advocating for a network of Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, around Canada that will serve as protective "nurseries," critical to marine health. They've teamed up for a new campaign, “Marine Mysteries of British Columbia,” to inspire visitors to the website to get involved in conservation quests that would help restock Canada's oceans.

Fish Out of Water: To become an Oceans Day event organizer, log on to David Suzuki’s Fish Out of Water campaign. Select a few activities from their toolkit or use their Canada-wide resource to find Oceans Day events in your community.

Every day is Oceans Day, so be wise about the seafood you put on your plate. Let us know what you do.