Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Should ocean lovers eat seafood?

Seems a bit of a silly question, but hey, why not weigh in at the new shifting baselines blog, where Randy Olson has turned over the reins to Jennifer Jacquet.

These two heavyweights have done a point-counterpoint thing on seafood ethics. Blogfish finds both sides wanting, and I've popped off down around comment 22 or something like that.

Jennifer just says no to seafood, and she thinks you should too although she doesn't push too hard. Randy says yes to seafood, at least until saying no can be part of a mass happening. Hmmm...they both seem to be missing the point.


I'll eat seafood and try to save the oceans that produce seafood. If I give up on seafood, then I'm giving up my ocean and I'm not going to do that. I say keep eating seafood, stay connected and engaged with the ocean and the ocean creatures that stir your soul (they must or you wouldn't be here). And then, so fortified with the right stuff, go forth and save the ocean.

I won't be satisfied with something so trivial as making a statement with refusing to eat. Seafood anorexia doesn't seem like a powerful statement, it's more like hiding in a cave and hoping really hard that things get better. No thanks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heavyweight or anorexic?

Love the oceans? Own an iPod?

If you answer YES to both questions, you are a good candidate to CONSIDER GIVING UP SEAFOOD!

Just today, Mac announced that it sold 100 million iPods. This year, the global fishing fleet will harvest somewhere near 100 million tons of fish from the sea. Over 75% of fish caught in are sold and consumed in countries other than where they were caught and landed. Europe, the U.S., Canada, and Japan all import more seafood than they catch--to feed populations that do not suffering from hunger or protein deficiency (in fact, quite the opposite). So I say: it’s one or the other. Ipod or seafood. Heavyweight or anorexic...

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ami~ said...

Seafood has been my favorite type of food my entire life and still is; however, since I've noticed that there is a problem, I have chosen not to eat seafood. I work as hard as I can to educate and spread awareness about overfishing and other threats to the ocean. I try to control my impact in every way that I can. I do not see how not eating seafood is a bad thing. I see it as a powerful statement along with all the other things that I do...I choose not to use styrofoam at all and have since spread that thinking to my friends...changes happen one small step at a time and as far as I am concerned, every small action adds up to a bigger one. Choosing to be not part of the problem is in my opinion a very powerful statement!