One of my rare soapboxes

My guess is that you probably know to avoid eating beluga caviar and Chilean Sea Bass due to dramatically diminishing fish stocks. You check that your canned Tuna is dolphin-friendly. But, if you're anything like me, your understanding of seafood sustainability ends there.

Enter Seafood Watch, a seafood advisory list created and maintained by the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. First of all, you should check out the official website just because. It's super educational, and definitely worth a gander. I, for one, learned that tuna live to be 35 years old and don't reach sexual maturity until age seven. Nor did I know that since the advent of commercial fishing, the ocean's fish stocks have been depleted by well over 90%. Woof.

Beyond these interesting facts, just a quick look at the information available allows you to make infinitely more informed decisions about the fish you buy. I mean, come on-- who would have known that eating Halibut from the Pacific ocean is totally kosher, while Atlantic halibut (genetically the same species), is not. Who thinks to ask whether your shrimp were caught via trawling or nets? Not me, I can tell you that much.

Now, I've never been one to promote hippie shit. I'm sorry but I'd never give up a 3 series for a Prius, and I simply refuse or to end my addiction to ultra-soft, 2 ply toilet paper to save the trees. But really, adhering to Seafood Watch's guidelines is about as low-effort and high-impact a gesture as you can make. Really.

Seafood Watch allows you to look up virtually any kind of seafood there is and it will tell you the advantages and disadvantages of consuming said fish or mollusk. It gives you alternatives to the species that the guidelines recommend avoiding, and best of all-- for us iPhone users-- the rules are conveniently available as a free application.

To conclude, I will leave you with this thought: If you are what you eat, then don't eat Bluefin Tuna. Otherwise you'll be pretty much extinct. That's all.