The Monterey Bay Aquarium has removed California and Oregon wild salmon from its Seafood Watch guide of sustainable seafood species.
Updated this month, the guide categorizes species as "best choices" (green), "good alternatives" (yellow) and "avoid" (red) according to whether a fishery is well managed or fish farming is environmentally friendly.
This year, the California and Oregon salmon fisheries were closed due to the collapse of the Sacramento River salmon population, which is being blamed on changes in ocean temperatures, water diversions and habitat destruction, not overfishing. In its July newsletter, the California aquarium reminded readers that farmed salmon remains on the avoid list.
Additionally, Atlantic herring and sardines were upgraded from best choices to good alternative; striped marlin was downgraded from good alternative to avoid; and Mid-Atlantic sea scallops were upgraded from avoid to good alternative.
In the Central region guide, recommendations for numerous Great Lakes species were added. And in the Hawaii guide, imported marlin/blue nairagi was added to the avoid list.
The 2008 guide is available on the aquarium's Web site, www.mbayaq.org.
