February 24, 2009
Track Your Seafood
BY: suzannah
One of the things I have found frustrating about ocean conservation is that most people don’t think twice about the fish on their plate. Take canned tuna. Much like ground beef, it’s comprised of many tuna fish mixed together, potentially from locations across the globe. It mystifies the meat and makes it very difficult for people to imagine that it ever came from a real fish in a real ecosystem.That’s why I was excited to see a pilot program called Pacific Fish Trax in Oregon that could end the mystery of where your fish comes from. Just swipe a barcode at the grocery store, and you can watch a video of the fisherman who caught your tuna and see a map of the spot where the fish was snagged.It all sounds pretty cool, and I hope the pilot program is a huge success. Among revelations that even fancy restaurants aren’t selling the fish they claim they’re selling, a little transparency could be a great thing.