How to Order Safe, Sustainable Sushi

Why It's Good:

Nothing beats that marriage of sweet, fresh seafood with salty soy sauce and vinegar-y rice. And delectable sushi is even more so when you know it's safe—no mercury, please!—and when you know the fish species that go into it are going to survive and thrive for many future meals. Everybody (who eats fish) loves sushi, making it also a great catering option for special events.

Why It's Green:

Well, here's the bad news: Fish populations are dwindling to frighteningly low levels. Research published in the journal Science in 2006 reported that 29% of the global fish and shellfish stocks have "collapsed," meaning less than 10% of their population remained. Fish is also increasingly contaminated with pollution and mercury. (Remember when sushi used to be a health food?) So if we want future generations to be able to sample certain kinds of sushi, it is hugely important that, as much as we can, we choose sushi made from sustainable seafood—meaning that it comes from a source, whether caught or farmed, that can exist over the long-term without compromising the health of the fish population or its ecosystem.

Where To Get It:

Both the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch and the Blue Ocean Institute, two organizations that monitor seafood populations and fisheries around the world in order to help consumers make the most sustainable choices, are already deep into research that will help them produce sustainable sushi lists. Keep checking their sites for their guides to good sushi choices, available later this year. Finally, one of our favorite tools is this fish finder: Plug in any fish, and learn how safe and savory it really is.

The Lowdown on Safe, Savory Sushi

If someone had told me when I was 10 that I would one day eat raw fish several times a month, I would have squealed in horror. But I've been hooked since my first bite of spicy tuna—which is why this "green girl" was devastated to learn about the environmental and health implications of my sushi cravings. So what's a sushi lover like me to do?

First, ramp up a bit on awareness—you'll be one step ahead of your sushi chef or caterer. "Only in the last six months to a year have the Japanese started to become aware of the issue of depletion of fish stocks," says Caroline Bennett, owner of the London sustainable sushi restaurant Moshi Moshi. Even as more sushi chefs realize that species like the prized bluefin tuna have been over-fished to near extinction, it's unlikely they will readily stop serving them in favor of more eco-friendly options. "The sushi world is deeply rooted in tradition," says Bennett. But what's tradition against your charm? So...

Second, start a conversation about sustainability with your sushi chef—but graciously. "Suggesting things to a sushi chef, or implying that you know better than he does when you're dining in front of him, can be seen as an insult," says Bennett. You can always ask questions, and tackling the tuna topic is the best way to go, because it's one that a lot of sushi chefs are most aware of. First, ask what kind of tuna the restaurant serves. If the restaurant is offering yellowfin tuna, congratulate the chef on choosing a more sustainable species. If it's bluefin tuna on the menu, say, "Wow, that's unusual, isn't it? Because there are so few left in the ocean, aren't there? Isn't yellowfin a better option in the long run?” Questions like these show customers like you care about the topic of sustainable seafood.

Third, choose wisely. We've made a list of the most popular sushi options and then put them in order of safety and sustainability, so if you want to keep your sushi-eating eco-friendly, stick to the top end of the list if you can. And while you're licking your chops, how about trying to work up the nerve to chat up your chef?—Megan O'Neill

1. Vegetable Rolls: Yep, knowing what we now do about dwindling fish populations, ordering vegetarian sushi is the number-one best option. If vegetable rolls—a mainly American invention—are made with flavorful Japanese ingredients, such as ginger, minty shiso leaf and herb-y mitsuba, you may just find yourself satisfied.

2. Shrimp, a.k.a. Ebi: Think—and order—domestic. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, the traditional trolling method used by shrimp fisherman involves dragging large nets along the bottom of the water. This results in high rates of bycatch, sometimes as high as 18 pounds of thrown-back, dying fish for every 1 pound of shrimp. In the U.S. and Canada, shrimp fisheries are required to use devices that prevent bycatch. U.S. shrimp farms are also well-managed, as farmers are developing sustainable, chemical-free methods of raising healthy shrimp. Remember, however, sushi made with domestic shrimp (and crab, which we talk about next) may mean paying a little more, because it's cheaper for restaurants to get it from overseas fisheries with more questionable practices. The good news is, according to the FDA, shrimp in general are known to have low levels of mercury.

3. Crab, a.k.a. Kani: A fairly safe sushi choice, crabs are typically caught with traps that limit bycatch, plus they reproduce quickly so populations are better at rebounding from over-fishing. And health concerns are minimal: They usually contain small amounts of mercury (although knowing where they've been caught and the level of pollution in those waters is good because you don't want to ingest those pollutants). That said, the tasty Spider roll is filled with fried soft shell crab—meaning, the crab was caught during their molting period. American soft shell blue crab is not a bad choice, but best eaten during the short molting season on the Southeastern Atlantic coast, which peaks in June and July. Otherwise, what you'll be eating is really soft shell crab imported from possibly sketchy fisheries in Southeast Asia.

4. Salmon, a.k.a. Sake: Due to several factors, including over-fishing, habitat loss and a rise in global water temperatures, the salmon population is now half of what it was 20 years ago. In California, for example, many of the rivers where salmon go to spawn have been dammed, making reproduction nearly impossible. With farmed salmon, experts agree that the majority of farms are poorly managed, "comparable to those of industrialized cattle—the fish are kept shoulder to shoulder in very tight quarters, so there is a lot of stress and sickness," says Sheila Bowman for Seafood Watch. To combat disease, salmon are given antibiotics, which we then ingest when eating the fish. And because salmon is near the top of the food chain, it must be fed tons of smaller fish, increasing the farmed salmon's mercury levels and endangering the populations of the smaller fish. Your best and safest bet is wild Alaskan salmon, as it's fished sustainably from a clean habitat—but not many sushi restaurants serve it. (Like anything else, if the price is right, they will—so restaurants on the West Coast are more likely to have wild Alaskan because they can get it fresh and more cheaply and easily.) Support the restaurants that do serve wild, and if your sushi chef doesn't, ask him or her to consider it.

5. Yellowtail, a.k.a. Hamachi: Because most of the yellowtail consumed is farm-raised, the main concerns are similar to farmed salmon: antibiotic use and the spread of disease into wild populations. The major difference, though, is that young, wild yellowtails are collected from the ocean, not bred in captivity, and raised to adulthood on fish farms. "Taking larval fish from the wild severely depletes natural populations," says Dane Klinger for the Blue Ocean Institute, but farms are not yet able to artificially propagate the species. Unless you can ensure the yellowtail in your sushi was wild-caught, experts say it might be smart to skip this not very sustainable fish.

6. Tuna, a.k.a. Toro: The most prized and popular piece of sushi on a restaurant's menu, tuna is also the costliest—for you and the ecosystem. Most toro is from bluefin, a species so over-fished it was deemed critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. Farmed bluefin, or any other type of tuna for that matter, is just as bad, as it takes massive amounts of smaller fish to feed these large carnivores, raising both wild and farmed tuna’s mercury levels. Yellowfin tuna is a good alternative, as it is not as over-fished. Spicy tuna rolls and other lower-priced tuna dishes may also be a better choice, especially at lower-end sushi joints, as they are less likely to be made with bluefin, but be sure to ask the sushi chef.