One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

Image from http://www.worldchanging.com

 I saw a commercial the other day for an organization called Oceana which works to protect the world's oceans, that grabbed my attention, first, by the sight of actor Adrian Grenier in a wet suit, and then by the mention of the rapidly diminishing Bluefin tuna population. I am sure that you heard some talk of the high levels of mercury found in fish such as Chilean Seabass, or talk of illegal and unsustainable fishing as reasoning for avoiding some seafood. Oh boy, another controversial food group that is cause for more confusion or guilt while dining out or grocery shopping and more reason to throw the towel in and disregard all talk of such touchy food topics while eating as you please. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, leave it to a simple text message to sort out the information for you. Next time you are at a restaurant or standing in line at the seafood counter at the market, whip out your phone and text the Blue Ocean Institute's "Fish Phone" at 30644 to get the straight answer to whether or not the beautiful pink tuna steak behind the glass is just as harmless as it looks. Just text "fish" followed by the species (Ex: fish bluefin tuna) and, immediately, a response will dish out the latest alerts for that particular fish, and also give you the option to receive additional updates by replying "BLUE".

"BlueOcean.org; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (RED); all three populations overfished with very low abundance due to ineffective management; Env Defense Fund Advisory: high mercury; Reply BLUE for txt message updates"