1. First off, while I respect everyone's taste I not only can envision, but I love a world without seafood, in which my culinary palate reaches the highest heights every day without having to leave a trail of destruction in its wake

2. While there are no doubt some examples of "sustainable" seafood it is stil one of the most energy-intensive products (deep-sea fish is equivalent in energy to industrial beef) and marine ecosystems invariably get harmed and marine mammals and other creatures killed in the process- in addition, certification is still sketchy at best

3. So while people are free to eat what they want don't fool yourself into thinking that seafood can be free of serious ecological harm- and it never will be

Seeing as how we don't need to eat fish (despite their many health benefits, regardless of mercury contamination), it seems to me quitting fish is a good idea. Get those Omega 3's from canola, walnuts, flax seed, or even supplements. I looked up NuTru's Omega 3 supplement, and one of those pills, while expensive, is way cheaper than fish flesh.

"The choice thoughtful people face is not between helping humans or helping other animals. One can do both." -- Tom Regan

In a nostalgia-for-Camelot kind of way, it is important to give testimony to cuisine experiences that may soon pass away.  Of course that is a less important consideration than the practical and unaesthetic one, that seafood is a major source of nutrition for a large part of humanity.  Still, aesthetics should never be neglected or undervalued.

In fact, I almost never eat seafood anymore.  Thanks, Sarah, for mentioning the Monterey Bay Aquarium's little guide.  We have a copy, stuck to our refrigerator with a magnet that looks like a white duck, but I cannot remember the last time I referred to it.

Nevertheless, I have many fond memories of eating seafood: tuna in various forms, salmon, swordfish, my grandmother's anchovy pizza, crabcake, the kalamarakia at a Greek restaurant that we like ...  It is probably fair to say that the meals that have given me the greatest pleasure, based on exquisite taste alone, have involved fish.

And yet, curiously, all that is now gone.  Not because of any principle that I have adopted, but rather, more mysteriously, at this stage of my life the fish seem not to swim onto my table.

Just as well, though, in view of this discouraging report.

Thanks, Epskionline, for the recommendation of NuTru's Omega 3 supplement.  Apparently, from what you write, it is made from vegetable sources, not from fish, no?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I'm not apologising for the status quo. It's a major problem. But the answer, as for most things, isn't just to avoid it. And I don't mean just because the problem isn't going away (which it's not); I mean I think that things--everything--are better seen as opportunities than crises. Just because the methods we use are unsustainable today, doesn't mean they can't be tomorrow.

Of course you can make an ethical decision not to eat fish today, if you perceive your presence in the market to be more a part of the problem than the solution. But I personally think that a solution is both necessary and good, so I won't be turning my back on fish... In other words, I seem to agree completely with the flesh and flavour of this report.