March 1, 2006

Seafood Choices

From <a href="http://www.oceansalive.org/" target="new">Oceans Alive</a>, a project of the Environmental Defense Network</span>: What’s good and bad for you, and for the environment.

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Seafood: What’s good and bad for you, and for the environment.
FISH GOOD FOR YOU?

color key: green, yellow, peach, orange, red
Best Worst		 ECO-FRIENDLY?

checkmarkcross
Yes No		 HEALTH ADVISORIES
Abalone (U.S. farmed)   yes insufficient data
Anchovies   yes  
Arctic Char (U.S. and Canadian farmed)   yes insufficient data
Bass, Striped (farmed)   yes  
Bass, Striped (wild)     PCBs, mercury, and pesticides
Bluefish     PCBs, mercury, and pesticides
Blue Marlin   no Mercury
Catfish (U.S. farmed)   yes  
Caviar, Paddlefish and Sturgeon (U.S. farmed)   yes insufficient data
Caviar, Sturgeon (wild)   no insufficient data
Clams   yes insufficient data
Cod, Atlantic   no Mercury
Crab, Blue     PCBs and mercury
Crab, Dungeoness   yes Mercury
Crab, snow and stone   yes  
Crawfish (U.S.)   yes  
Croaker, Atlantic     PCBs
Croaker, White     PCBs
Eel, American     PCBs, mercury, and pesticides
Flounder, Blackback     PCBs
Flounder, Summer     PCBs
Grouper   no Mercury
Halibut   no Mercury
Herring, Atlantic Sea   yes  
Lingcod     Mercury
Lobster, American/Maine     Mercury
Mackerel, Atlantic   yes  
Mackerel, King   Mercury
Mackerel, Spanish     Mercury
Mahi Mahi   yes Mercury
Marlin, Striped   no Mercury
Marlin, White   no Mercury
Monkfish   no Mercury
Mussels, Blue (farmed)   yes PCBs
Mussels, Blue (wild)     PCBs
Mussels, New Zealand Green   yes insufficient data
Opah/Moonfish     Mercury
Orange Roughy   no Mercury
Oysters, Eastern (farmed)   yes PCBs
Oyster, Eastern (wild)     PCBs
Oysters, European   yes insufficient data
Oysters, Pacific   yes  
Pompano, Florida     Mercury
Rockfish (Pacific: rock cod/boccacio)   no Mercury
Sablefish/Black Cod (from Alaska)   yes  
Salmon, Atlantic (farmed or wild)   no PCBs, dioxins, and pesticides
Salmon, Alaska (wild)   yes  
Sardines   yes  
Scallops (farmed bay)   yes  
Seabass, Black     Mercury
Seabass, Chilean   no Mercury
Shark   no Mercury
Shrimp (Northern from Newfoundland, U.S. farmed)   yes insufficient data
Shrimp/Prawns (imported)   no insufficient data
Snapper, Red   no Mercury
Snapper, Mutton   no Mercury
Snapper, Yellowtail   no Mercury
Sole, English     PCBs
Spot Prawns   yes insufficient data
Spotted Seatrout     PCBs and mercury
Sturgeon, Atlantic   no Mercury
Sturgeon (farmed)   yes insufficient data
Swordfish   no Mercury
Tilapia (U.S.)   yes  
Tilefish   no Mercury
Tuna, Albacore     Mercury
Tuna, Bluefin   no Mercury
Tuna, Skipjack     Mercury
Wahoo     Mercury
Weakfish     PCBs
Winter Skate   no Mercury
Source: Oceans Alive, a project of the Environmental Defense Network

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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