Watch your seafood

There are many fish in the sea, but we need to be intelligent about how we take them out. I've been aware for a while that some fish are safer than others in terms of mercury, and that some have been overfished or are not farmed sustainably, and hence should be avoided.

But really, when I stand in front of the seafood counter, this knowledge does not kick in effectively. Who can remember the relative merits of bass, tilapia, and rock cod? And how about all those types of salmon-- Atlantic, King, sockeye, etc-- are they the same?

Thankfully, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has created a regional wallet-sized seafood guide that you can print out and carry to the store with you. One less thing to remember!

Some of the distinctions on the guide are ones that the fish labels probably don't make: Was that tuna caught using a longline or pole method? But you can ask the seafood person behind the counter. The more people ask, the more the store will feel the need to know this information.