Hold the phone

Evaluating seafood choices just became a lot easier

Posted by Katy Balatero at 10:35 PM on 03 Oct 2007

Read more about: food | oceans | fishing

Wondering whether the seafood entrée you are about to order at a restaurant is environmentally friendly? Pulling the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Card out of your wallet to check it out is so 2006. Enter FishPhone, a text-messaging service provided by the Blue Ocean Institute.

Text 30644 on your cell phone with the message "FISH" and the name of the fish in question, and the BOI will get back to you within seconds. The FishPhone website allows mobile web users to look up seafood choices as well, and provides a "Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood" that you can download to a handheld device.

For story: Hold the phone
12 Comments | Post a Comment

I think that's pretty cool

We have got to find a way to stop the unsustainable harvest of the oceans. This sure won't be enough but it might educate some people on the plight of the ocean fisheries. When in doubt one can also just skip the seafood.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 7:34 AM on 04 Oct 2007

or...

I find not eating any fish at all pretty effective, as well.

by arimoore at 7:53 AM on 04 Oct 2007

"Phone" and "cool"

are words that rarely enter my daily vocabulary, by design. We would all be happier if we left the phones at home when we go to, say, a restaurant.

Aside from that, BioD is absolutely right, we need to do something about stopping the depletion of many species of marine life, and the destruction of their ecosystems.

Also, AriMoore offers us all an excellent example. It is not clear why he himself (he?; "Ari," Hebrew for "lion," is a man's name; so is "Aristotle") does not eat seafood. It would be nice to know that he is in the very small number of us who are aware that there is no "humane" way of killing a fish.

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

by caniscandida at 9:03 AM on 04 Oct 2007

Seafood Watch is mobile too!

You no longer have to carry a Seafood Watch pocket guide. Since mid-September, it's been available for cell phones and PDAs, just by clicking on our Mobile Seafood Watch link.

You'll have the lastest versions of all our pocket guides at your fingertips, including Spanish-language guides.

Ken Peterson
Monterey Bay Aquarium

by aquaken at 9:28 AM on 04 Oct 2007

Ecosystem health

While such initiatives are generally a good idea, there is some danger that they will propagate the idea that the oceans can be managed in terms of individual species. In the end, it is the integrity of entire ecosystems that is important. As such, we should be concerned about all activities that stress those - from toxins and eutrophication to cy-catch and ocean acidification.

Like arimoore, I find it easiest to avoid ethical problems by eating no fish (or other meat) whatsoever.

a sibilant intake of breath

by sindark at 11:47 AM on 04 Oct 2007

Conspicuous Sustainable Seafood Consumption

Yeah, but with the analog version of the seafood guide you can sit at a sushi bar and open it up and look at it, in plain view of everyone sitting around you. And you can say, "Oh, look, honey! Halibut's okay -- it's not full of mercury and its habitat is okay, too! Chilean Sea Bass -- bad, bad, bad. Tuna? Well, I don't know -- how is it caught?"

You can also carry a few of them in your purse or wallet, so you can hand them out to fellow patrons who get curious. I've seen people give out copies at parties.

by Judith Lewis at 3:25 PM on 04 Oct 2007

This idea: South African?

a mobile text service like this has been running in South Africa since Dec 06.

Out of curiosity, whose idea was it? I know WWF SA and Monterey have a connection...

Check out

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Cellular/568.html

Whiskerfish

by Whiskerfish at 5:45 AM on 05 Oct 2007

Fabulous!

No offense to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but this brings it to those of us who just have regular ol' phones, not the internet-enabled type.

by eriqa at 7:33 AM on 05 Oct 2007

YOU DONKEY!

You just put the environmentally unfriendly fish out on the 2nd course.

Take off that uniform!

Get of my kitchen!!!

GET OUUUTTTT!!!!!!

Possibly the best Alternative Energy blog I read: New Energy and Fuel

by jabailo at 9:51 AM on 05 Oct 2007

The Realistic Vegetarian

With the greatest respect to vegetarians. Using the "i don't eat fish arguement' doesn't get us anywhere. People eat fish and will continue to eat fish. Some fish are unsustainable, endagered and overfished. Other species are managed effectively and fished in a more environmentally friendly way.

Fish is the primary source of protein for millions of people throughout the world. Finding ways to manage our fisheries more sustainably is a must. This text messaging service is a peice in a very, very large puzzle. So i welcome it, but not without putting it in context.

The argument about Monterey Bay, WWF SA and Blue Ocean is rediculous. Who cares who comes up with the cure for AIDS as long as everyone can have access to it.

by tigerhall at 11:33 AM on 05 Oct 2007

Also boycott Canadian seafood

I'll skip the fish along with some of the others above, but if you do eat seafood, remember to boycott Canadian seafood because of the horrific harp seal slaughter. To view the restaurants and retailers that have joined the boycott, visit www.RestaurantsForSeals.org.

All fresh seafood sold in the U.S. must be labelled as to country of origin. You can download and print a copy of the pocket guide to boycotting Canadian seafood at http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/pocket_guide_to_boycott ...

One of the main targets is Canadian snow crab, since the majority of sealers also catch snow crab after the sealing season. Interestingly, snow crab numbers in Canada have been steadily declining.

by amc89 at 2:14 PM on 05 Oct 2007

yes, i'm vegan

caniscandida, I'm a genderqueer girl (Ari is short for Ariana). And I am indeed in the small number of folks who knows killing isn't humane - I'm vegan. :)

It sure is nice that having compassion for all sentient beings works out well for human health, too.

by arimoore at 7:45 AM on 08 Oct 2007
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