Monday, Dec. 29, 2008

Sushi: How to keep it safe

Overfarmed fish a threat to health, environment

The halcyon days of hamachi (yellowtail) are over, and don't even think about chowing down on hon maguro (bluefin tuna).

Such are the recommendations from a series of sushi consumer guides released in October by three ocean conservation organizations. Considering such factors as fish that's overfarmed or laden with contaminants, the guides aim to determine which sushi is shameful, and which fish is fair game for your chopsticks.

The forbidden fish list, which includes many sushi bar staples, advises against the following: imported ebi (shrimp), unagi (freshwater eel), tako (octopus) and Japanese farmed hamachi (yellowtail).

Sushi has become part of the American culture. There are hundreds of eateries in the Central Valley that serve sushi.

Read the fish list to Taro Arai, proprietor behind the Mikuni restaurant chain in Sacramento, and you'll hear a gasp.

"No tako?" says Arai. "Hamachi is in the top three (most popular items) at any sushi restaurant. What, are they trying to close all the sushi bars down?"

But you don't have to totally walk away from your wasabi. Fish choices given the green light, due to having low levels of contaminants or being caught responsibly, include farmed kaki (oysters) and izumidai (U.S. farmed tilapia).

The pocket-size guides are produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and two New York-based groups: Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense Fund. The guides are available as print brochures or accessible online at www.blueocean.org, www.edf.org and www.montereybayaquarium.org.

"We looked at such criteria as how well a fishery is being managed by a governmental or state agency, what kind of gear was being used and what kind of fish it is in the first place," says Sheila Bowman, Seafood Watch outreach manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "Our guide is from ecological (concerns), but we also make note about contaminants."

The advice isn't so clear-cut for sushi lovers. Each conservation organization produced its own guide, and though there's consistency on the most offending fish, there are contradictions among the advice.

Hirame (Pacific halibut), for example, is listed as a "best choice" in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's guide. That same sushi is just an "OK choice" to the Environmental Defense Fund.

"For the most part, we overlap on a high percentage of the recommendations," says Bowman. "The variances come from the different emphasis that each group puts on their criteria. We are trying to look toward doing (a single guide)."

Selecting appropriate sushi also requires close reading of the guides. Say you want to know if sake (salmon) is good to go: Alaskan wild sake gets a thumbs-up, the wild version from Washington is just "OK," and farmed sake is a big no-no.

Tim Collom frequents several of the Sacramento region's sushi bars. The local real-estate agent eats sushi up to four times a week and plans to adhere to the sushi guidelines.

"It's hard enough to know the different kinds of fish," says Collom, grubbing on a sushi lunch at midtown's Kru restaurant. "I'm a big sushi eater, so the biggest thing for me is the quality. If the fish is overfarmed, the quality usually goes down. So if I saw that something on a list was overfarmed, then, yeah, I'd probably stay away."

Arai, the sushi entrepreneur, worries that following these new guides will result in switching to more expensive fish, though he once paid $16,000 for a single bluefin tuna. That type of tuna is also listed on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's "avoid" list due to concerns about contaminants.

"We want to be as safe as possible," says Arai. "And if we can save the ocean as long as we can, that would be nice, too. We will try our best to do that, according to the cost. If we have to pay $15,000 per fish to follow the rules, I don't think we can stay in business.

"At the same time, we have to be ready for these (guides) and be sensitive to them," Arai adds. "It's good for us to know that customers will be looking at them and we can work around them somehow."

Those adjustments might be more culinary than mandatory.

"I think some chefs will have to come to terms with trying something different," says Bowman of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "We don't want to put people out of business, but if you keep fishing until that fish gets extinct, where does the business go?"