Wild Edibles is one of New York's premier seafood markets. This is the kind of fish monger with whom you can have a conversation: ask questions, learn about seafood, get educated about sources, and get advice about cooking the best the ocean has to offer. They are also wholesalers, selling to some of NYC's best restaurants. But at heart, they are small store fish merchants who will help you cook and eat fish.
With stores in midtown's Grand Central Market, in Manhattan's Murray Hill, and in Forager's Market in Dumbo, these seafood specialists have long been the source of superb quality fish and shellfish while being attentive to sustainability. Since they know where their product comes from, they've been worried about damage to the ocean's ecosystems and have been one of the first fish stores in the city to help consumers get smart and think twice about buying certain species.
This month Wild Edibles took another step by teaming up with The Blue Ocean Institute to launch a seafood labeling system that flags each fish according to its level of sustainability -- meaning how it is fished or farmed in ways that either benefit or hurt the ocean.
Wild Edibles now places easy-to-read green, yellow and red labels to guide consumers in making informed seafood selections. Each color signals a level of abundance, emerging problems or scarcity for individual types of fish and shellfish. The coding, which is based on such factors as supply, catch/harvest method, management and conservation, is part of a ranking system devised by The Blue Ocean Institute, a national marine conservation organization on Long Island.
For example, the current ranking lists Alaska Salmon and U.S. farmed Tilapia as green, Monkfish as yellow (due to poor management), and Atlantic Cod as red (due to severe overfishing and bottom trawling).
In making the announcement, Steve Schafer, director of retail operations for Wild Edibles, positioned their new labeling system as both a help and an alarm. "This is an ambitious campaign to educate consumers about he importance of making sustainable choices when buying seafood. It's important that we do this and help, in some way, to prevent the depletion of so many different species of fish."
Visit The Blue Ocean Institute's web site for an easy-to-use and wallet-sized "Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood." The guides are also available at any of Wild Edibles three stores.
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