Which Fish?

A few years back, I saw a visualization of Atlantic cod stocks over the last 100 years. It was utterly frightening: measured by the standards of a century ago, there is no more cod in the sea. We ate it all. Spurred on by this, I resolved to make sure I'd eat sustainable fish, but I quickly realized that what guidance there was out there was too complicated. When you're in a restaurant, there's not much hope of finding out which exact stock area your fish comes from - species and maybe ocean is all you're going to get.

So I decided to create Which Fish, a simpler fish sustainability guide.

Which Fish is a list of fish types, sometimes roughly broken down by area or method of catch. Its rating system is simple: yes or no. The data for the site is synthesized from a few places, mostly the Monterey Bay Aquarium's excellent Seafood Watch site and the UK Marine Conservation Society's comprehensive FishOnline tool. The information is simplified down into a JSON data file that is then used to generate the website in English, French and German.

This project has lain fallow for a few years, but I've just released a long overdue update to the fish data and am now looking to develop it further. The major areas I want to work on are improved translations, outreach, and mobile apps. The project is open source, and I would love collaborators, so drop me a line if you want to join me. I would be especially keen to link up with graphic artists and people willing to maintain and improve the data and translations.