I love fish and seafood in general but the stocks of wild seafood, some of our most precious resources, have been under unsustainable pressure for years. The dwindling populations are reason to be concerned, very concerned at that. I can remember 20 years ago the loins of swordfish that I broke down while working in a restaurant. They were gigantic. I don’t see loins like that anymore. Or how about cod 25 years ago? Huge thick slabs of flaky white meat. What’s sold as cod today might have been more aptly been considered scrod back in the day. Scrod, by the way, is simply a young, smaller cod, though sometimes haddock is sold as scrod.

As we all move toward eating in a fashion that is more responsible, both for our own health as well as the communal health of our planet, our attention should be focused on those resources we are most likely to lose. The oceans are a big mystery to us in many ways: their uncharted depths, their unrelenting currents, and the impending effect of man’s influence. We know already that many breeding stocks of fish are nearly depleted and need our help in order to recover.