The Empty Sea

Abstract

Remember when eating sea food wasn't something to feel guilty about? You know, back in the days when fish was the item of choice for the health-conscious on the restaurant menu? Suddenly ordering the wrong entree off the From the Oceans list is about as acceptable as felling a stand of old-growth forest to make a parking space for your SUV. The list of endangered fish species is growing depressingly long. The Census of Marine Life, a 10-year, $1-billion project involving more than 300 scientists from 53 countries is attempting to find out what's in the world's oceans, from the types of marine bacteria to where exactly Pacific salmon go when they return to the sea. For a frightening tale of destruction, consider the popular delicacy now known as the Chilean sea bass. Bon Appetit magazine's "2001 Dish of the Year," its snow-white, flaky filets are prized in restaurants around the world. But it has been so overfished in the past decade -- mostly illegally -- in the seas off Antarctica that the average Chilean sea bass now weighs less than 10 lb. The British-based Marine Stewardship Council, which emerged from a partnership between the World Wildlife Fund and Unilever, the world's largest buyer of seafood, issues labels for stores and restaurants to use to verify that a fish was caught in a sustainable fishery. So what are we left with? As a rule, you're more likely to dine guilt-free if the fish comes from the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic, where the pressures of overfishing have been greater. Pacific halibut and cod are both OK, for instance, but sitting down to a plate of either species caught off Newfoundland or Nova Scotia is a definite no-no. If you're determined to eat with a clean conscience, you may have to broaden your tastes a little.