Hate to break it you, but your healthy sushi dinner? Not so healthy after all. At least, not so healthy for the fish—our voracious raw fish appetite is rapidly depleting the ocean of some of its most prized specimens.
This isn’t necessarily new news, but now we can’t say we didn’t know any better. On October 22, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch will be releasing its latest pocket guide, the aptly titled “Seafood Watch Sushi Pocket Guide,” which will tell us what species we can eat occasionally, which ones we should never eat and those we ought to try to convince restaurants (sushi and otherwise) to never serve again. You can order it here (it’s free).
October 22 also marks the start of the weeklong “National Sushi Party.” To celebrate, head to Tataki, a relatively new restaurant that has committed to only serving fish that has been rated completely sustainable by Seafood Watch (What does that mean? No unagi. No hamachi. No farmed salmon. Nothing caught by long-line or bottom trawlers.) Tataki even employs seafood sustainability expert (and SF resident) Casson Trenor. His forthcoming book, Sustainable Sushi, A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time (look for it in January) goes into even further depth than the Pocket Guide, and includes good advice on what to order—and request—at your favorite local joint. Among the good choices at Tataki: Farmed amberjack, hand-line caught local albacore, and close-containment farmed arctic char. Doing good while eating well—something we San Franciscans are very skilled at.
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