{"id":3763,"date":"2008-10-23T13:02:57","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T19:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2008-10-23T13:02:57","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T19:02:57","slug":"environmental-defense-fund-new-sushi-selector-whats-good-whats-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/environmental-defense-fund-new-sushi-selector-whats-good-whats-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Defense Fund: New Sushi Selector – What’s Good, What’s Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now sushi lovers can make informed seafood choices that please the palate and safeguard the\u00a0oceans. Environmental Defense Fund’s new Sushi Selector<\/a> lists choices by Japanese\u00a0and English\u00a0names, and ranks them according to\u00a0whether fish are caught or farmed in an environmentally responsible way and if their contaminant levels pose a health risk.<\/p>\n

For sushi aficionados, that means both pleasant surprises \u2014 and some disappointments. Popular items like\u00a0toro<\/a> (bluefin\u00a0tuna) and\u00a0unagi<\/a> (freshwater eel) are on the Eco-Worst list, as is\u00a0most\u00a0sake<\/a> (made with\u00a0farmed or Atlantic salmon). These species are either overfished, caught\u00a0in ways\u00a0that destroy ocean habitats or kill large amounts of other sea life, or\u00a0they are farmed with methods that pollute the ocean or\u00a0threaten nearby wild fish populations.<\/p>\n

But such choices as sake\u00a0made from\u00a0wild-caught Alaska salmon<\/a>, hotate<\/a> (farmed scallops\u00a0)\u00a0 and hirame<\/a> (Pacific halibut\u00a0) are\u00a0Eco-Best choices, in part because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or \u2014 in the case of scallops \u2014 are raised using\u00a0eco-friendly\u00a0aquaculture methods.<\/p>\n

One caveat: Sushi is rarely labeled with species names, where the fish came from, or whether it was caught or farmed. Ask your server, chef or sushi purveyor for this information.<\/p>\n