So Long Hello, and Thanks for All the Fish!

Apparently, things are not quite as grim as we thought on the seafood front, at least for some species.

On average, fish stocks worldwide appear to be stable, and in the United States they are rebuilding, in many cases at a rapid rate.

The overall record of American fisheries management since the mid-1990s is one of improvement, not of decline. Perhaps the most spectacular recovery is that of bottom fish in New England, especially haddock and redfish; their abundance has grown sixfold from 1994 to 2007. Few if any fish species in the United States are now being harvested at too high a rate, and only 24 percent remain below their desired abundance.

And:

... not all highly migratory fish are in danger; the albacore, skipjack and yellowfin tuna and swordfish on American menus are not threatened.

Still not out of the woods yet (beat that for an inappropriate metaphor) -- other "highly migratory" species, such as the Atlantic bluefin tuna and many kinds of shark are still being overfished, and there remain problems with:

... bottom fish — like cod, haddock, flounder and sole — that are caught in “mixed fisheries,” where it is impossible to catch one species but not another. We also know little about the sustainability of fish caught in much of Asia and Africa.

Still, a nice shot of good news.

I think I'd rather continue feeling guilty about my hunk of factory-raised cow, though.