From ‘Avoid’ to ‘Best Choice’: Pacific spiny dogfish upgraded by Seafood Watch

New and Updated Recommendations – September 2014

The Monterey Bay Aquarium
Seafood Watch

02. September 2014

—————————-

Consumers now have many more sustainable seafood options from the West Coast

New and updated recommendations for September 2014 include cabezon, crab, dogfish, groundfish, grouper, grenadier, lingcod, lobster, Pacific cod, sablefish and skate. The most exciting news is that all groundfish caught in California, Oregon and Washington are now either a Seafood Watch “Good Alternative” or “Best Choice.” This reflects a continuing pattern of improvement for U.S.-managed fisheries.

Report highlights:

· All trawl- and longline-caught rockfish have been upgraded from “Avoid” to either “Good Alternative” or “Best Choice”

· Major flatfish species—including Dover sole, English sole, Pacific sanddab and rex sole—have been upgraded from “Good Alternative” to “Best Choice”

· Pacific grenadier has been upgraded from “Avoid” to “Good Alternative”

· U.S. Pacific spiny dogfish has been upgraded from “Avoid” to “Best Choice”

· 13 of the species in this report are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

Factors contributing to fishery improvements and recommendation upgrades include reductions in the catch of overfished species, additional species stock assessments and area closures to protect vulnerable habitat. The new assessments also factor in other fishery management efforts, including quotas that better account for uncertainty and the implementation of catch shares, which contribute to species upgrades.

Click here to see the full list of all of the new and updated recommendations this month

Source: seafoodwatch.org