If you ask yourself such questions and want to avoid seafood that is overfished, you are not alone. Consider, for example, the chefs at the high-profile Monterey Bay and New England Aquariums, which together serve seafood to more than a million people a year. The same reasoning governs menu choices at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, which took a close look at its offerings three years ago to make sure it could justify the seafood selections offered to the public. At the same time, the New England Aquarium menu offered shrimp, crab and lobster from Maine, Iceland haddock, Prince Edward Island mussels and yellowfin tuna from various sources. As these institutions know full well, the facts about declining seafood stocks are alarming.
Conservationists believe many species in the unknown category are also depleted.
Worldwide, supplies of prized species like salmon, tuna, haddock, cod, swordfish, shark and lobster are dwindling in many prime fishing grounds. Marine scientists estimate that 60 to 70 percent of the world's commercial fisheries need urgent attention. Still, plenty of seafood populations are doing just fine, and many are fished sustainably, without jeopardizing natural stocks. The trick for conscientious consumers is to find those fish on the menu or in the supermarket. And that is not a simple matter.