On Food and Cooking

mechanization of all aspects of the harvest,
we’ve managed to fish many important food
species to the verge of commercial extinction.
Formerly common fish — cod and herring,
Atlantic salmon and swordfish and sole,
sturgeon and shark — are increasingly rare.
Others — orange roughy, Chilean sea bass,
monkfish — come and go from the market,
temporarily abundant until they too are
overfished.
The decline in the populations of wild fish
has encouraged the widespread revival and
modernization of aquaculture. Fish farms are
now our nearly exclusive source for
freshwater fish, for Atlantic salmon, and for
mussels. Many of these operations effectively
spare wild populations, but others further
deplete them and cause environmental
damage of their own. It takes some effort
these days to find and choose fish and
shellfish that have been produced in
environmentally responsible, sustainable