Seafood Watch App

About Seafood Watch

Seafood Watch is a free mobile app for iOS and Android that informs consumers and businesses on the most sustainable seafood choices. The Monterey Bay Aquarium manages the program and advocates for seafood that’s fished and farmed in ways that protect sea life and its habitats, now and for future generations.

Each seafood item is divided into one of three categories: “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives,” and which to “Avoid.” This empowers seafood purchasers to make the most informed and sustainable choices.

Seafood Watch raises public awareness about sustainable seafood issues through consumer guides, website, mobile apps, and outreach efforts. Since 1999, its distributed over 56 million consumer guides and the smartphone app has now been downloaded over 1.5 million times. They also encourage restaurants, distributors, and seafood purveyors to purchase from sustainable sources.

About Sustainable Seafood

Seafood Watch defines sustainable seafood as: seafood from sources, fished or farmed, that can maintain or increase production without jeopardizing the structure and function of affected ecosystems.

The key issues we look at when evaluating the sustainability of fisheries are:

Impacts of the fishery on the species under assessment
Impacts on other capture species
Effectiveness of management
Impacts on the habitat and ecosystem

The key issues we look at when evaluating the sustainability of fish farms are:

Availability of data
Impacts of effluent
Impacts on habitat
Chemical use
Feed
Risk of escapes impacting wild populations
Risk of disease, pathogen and parasite interaction with wild populations
Source of stock—independence from wild fish stocks
Predator and wildlife mortalities
Escape of unintentionally introduced species

What is Bycatch?

According to the World Wildlife Federation, “wherever there is fishing, there is bycatch—the incidental capture of non-target species such as dolphins, marine turtles and seabirds.” Nets and lines thousands of miles long are cast into the world’s oceans every day.

Modern fishing equipment, often undetectable by sight for various species of oceanic creatures and extremely strong, has become incredibly efficient at catching its desired fish species—as well as anything else in its path. A disturbing amount of marine life—including turtles, cetaceans such as dolphins and small whales, sharks, seabirds, and juvenile fish—is hauled up with the catch, and then discarded overboard dead or dying.

This gross inefficiency is driving many species to vulnerability or the brink of extinction. The waste and unnecessary loss of life is an unforgivable human act that must be amended with changes to contemporary fishing practices.

What is a Best Choice?

Buy Best Choices first: they’re well managed and caught or farmed in ways that cause little harm to habitats or other wildlife.

For example: Blue King Crab harvested in Alaska is considered a Best Choice, in light of recovered populations from overfishing, low bycatch, and effective management.

What is a Good Alternative?

Buy Good Alternatives, but there are concerns with how they’re caught or farmed.

For example: most Pollock, often sold as “artificial crab” despite being a bottom-feeding fish, is a Good Alternative when wild and line-caught in North America.

In the Northern Atlantic ocean, in the Gulf of Maine or Canadian Maritimes, Pollock is caught with gillnets or set longlines. The stock is healthy in the U.S., but numbers are unknown in Canada. Both fisheries catch other species that are depleted, have been overfished, or are currently being overfished – calling into question the accuracy of Pollock population health.

What to Avoid?

Don’t buy seafood on the Avoid list: they’re overfished, caught, or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.

For example: Atlantic sardines caught in the Mediterranean region are to be avoided. The status of many populations is unknown and others are depleted, with overfishing still occurring.

Atlantic sardines have a high bycatch ratio and management is ineffective. In addition, they’re an important aspect of the food web for other fish and there are concerns about how overfishing is impacting the their ecosystem.

How to Navigate Sushi A-Z

Sushi has been a popular meal in Canada, since the first restaurant opened in Vancouver during 1963 on Powell Street. Hidekazu Tojo invented the popular California Roll in Vancouver during the late 1970s – you can still visit his restaurant today, Tojo’s on West Broadway!

However, given our current state of affairs with regards to ocean health, it’s important to make considered decisions when ordering sashimi, nigiri, maki – or other seafood-based dishes at your favourite sushi spot.

Seafood Watch offers an easy-to-navigate sushi directory, to streamline your sustainable decision process.

Open the Seafood Watch app.
Click the three-lined menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
Select Sushi A-Z from the menu that opens.
Scroll down the alphabetized menu to locate the seafood you have queries about.
Select Sake, (or Salmon.) We’ll use it as an example.
Specify the region your seafood item is from via the dropdown menu found beneath the item’s illustration. (Some examples are: Atlantic, Chinook, or Chum.)
Specify Wild or Farmed – a greyed out box indicates that the item is not available.
Specify Domestic or Imported.
Tap a result, ie. a Good Alternative, to review a summary of how the seafood is harvested and what makes it a good alternative to other choices.
Finally, tap “Share This Seafood” to promote what you’ve learned via email or social media.

Warning: to achieve the most accurate understanding of your purchase’s sustainability, it’s important not to skip these specifications!

How do I Gauge the Sustainability of a Grocery Store Seafood Purchase?

Open the Seafood Watch app.
Click the three-lined menu in the upper left corner of the screen or select Seafood A-Z from the landing page.
Select Seafood A-Z from the menu that opens.
Scroll to locate your preferred seafood item from the alphabetized list.
Tap the item to open its page.
Specify the region your seafood item is from via the dropdown menu found beneath the item’s illustration. (Some examples are: Atlantic, Cortez, or Pacific.)
Select Wild or Farmed – a greyed box indicates that the item is not available.
Select Domestic or Imported.
Tap a result, ie. a Good Alternative, to review a summary of how the seafood is harvested and what makes it a good alternative to other choices.
Finally, tap “Share This Seafood” to promote what you’ve learned via email or social media.

Warning: to achieve the most accurate understanding of your purchase’s sustainability, it’s important not to skip these specifications!