Growers and Grocers

Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press reports that Oregon and California salmon fishermen have seen declining numbers of fish in recent years. Scott Boley, a skipper of a salmon troller, a partner in Fishermen Direct Seafood and a member of the federal panel that selects the fishing season for ocean salmon, returned from three […]

It’s the middle of summer and there’s nothing tastier than some lovely fresh fish. But wait – aren’t fish bad for you now? Or are they good for you again? And some of them have been overfished, haven’t they? And what about pollution?
Buying fish can be a confusing process. Besides obvious concerns about taste, freshness […]

The FDA has established strict labeling guidelines for bottled water, but with so many different categories, how helpful are they to consumers? Bottled water is generally defined in the regulations as “water that is intended for human consumption and that is sealed in bottles or other containers with no added ingredients except that it […]

Environmental group Defenders of Wildlife is making news by reporting that mercury levels in many imports of canned tuna exceed federal mercury limits. Canned tuna from Ecuador and Mexico were the worst offenders. Defenders of Wildlife previously targeted the same countries for their failure to follow dolphin-safe tuna practices.
The higher mercury […]

Online magazine Slate offers a humorous analysis of a Canadian advisory on lobster tomalley—the green goo in the big crustaceans. The Canadian government urges you not to eat two lobsters’ worth of tomalley in one sitting, since the organ collects toxins released by red tides.
In other words, if you’re one of those eaters who […]

Everyone’s up in arms about Consumer Reports’ exposé on high mercury levels in canned tuna. Everyone in the government, that is.
Consumer Reports reports that they found higher mercury levels than predicted in canned light tuna, which supposedly has less than white tuna. The FDA stands by its earlier findings about mercury levels, and I’ve gotten […]

Guess what happens when you let regional authorities police international fishing? That’s right, the international waters get ignored and commercial fishers decimate coral reefs and deep-sea fish stocks.
The World Wildlife Federation recently released a report that took governments and commercial operations to task for failing to regulate deep-sea fishing. They use the word “plundered” to […]

The Los Angeles Times reports that a California Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of tuna canners who wanted to avoid warning customers about mercury levels (free registration or bugmenot required).
The California judge pointed to an existing federal decision, which declares that the mercury levels are too low for concern. Critics of the ruling […]

A week ago, 70,400 acres of New Jersey oyster beds went on vacation after an oil spill in Delaware Bay.
Even though I didn’t know about the closure, I’m happy to report that inspectors have cleared the affected beds, according to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Start your slurping once again!

Food and Water Watch released the first issue (pdf) of The Fish Dish, a newsletter about aquaculture.
This lobby’s articles might annoy readers who dislike sensationalist text—sharks! that’s right, sharks! love to prey on offshore fish farms—but most will find interesting tidbits. For instance, oil companies want to hook aquaculture pens to offshore oil rigs so […]