One fish, two fish, red fish ... no fish?

Perhaps if Dr. Seuss were alive to write a modern sequel to his cherished children's book, that would be its title. According to a paper published in 2006 by an international team of ecologists and economists, if humans maintain their current rate of consumption and methods of capture, "no fish" could be a reality by 2048. No fish - as in a complete collapse of the fisheries industry.

The prediction sounds extreme, almost apocalyptic, but the numbers tell the story: Compared to 1950s populations of large-fish species, which include cod, tuna and halibut, less than 10 per cent remain, according to a 2003 article in the scientific journal Nature.

Canadian consumers are beginning to react to the shocking research with a growing demand for sustainable seafood - meaning marine life that reproduces efficiently enough to meet consumer demands without the risk of depletion and is captured in a way that doesn't compromise the balance of its ecosystem. But given the dearth of regulation and protected ocean space (less than 0.6 per cent globally), it can be difficult for consumers, seafood stores and restaurants to navigate the murky waters of what is sustainable, especially in Edmonton. Knowing where your fish is imported from, how it is caught and if it was caught legally isn't easy in a city more than 1,000 kilometres from the nearest ocean.

"We are always concerned as to whether we should be handling species that are becoming endangered," says Hugh Weis, owner of BiCoastal Seafoods, which provides fish meat to restaurants, retailers and institutions. He adds, "I don't usually receive questions about where it was caught; [customers] just ask if we have the products." BiCoastal abides by regulations set by the Canada Food Inspection Agency, which mostly concern product quality and consumer safety.

Bryan Fallwell, owner of Billingsgate Fish Co. Limited, a century-old seafood market with outlets in Edmonton and Calgary, says he has noticed a growing demand among consumers. "Sustainability is a new craze," he says, noting that until recently "all people were mostly concerned about were the health benefits of seafood."

Neither BiCoastal nor Billingsgate follows a sustainable seafood guide. "We work on it on an individual basis," says Fallwell. "We are trying to incorporate as much sustainable seafood as possible, but there is a lot of public pressure to eat wild."

One local business, Ocean Odyssey Inland, is striving to provide ecologically sound sea-food. Fishmonger and store owner Pat Batten became interested in the sustainable fishing industry after an encounter with a Nanaimo fisherman who taught her about the harsh realities of the global industry. In 2001, she began selling ocean products at Greater Edmonton farmers' markets that were caught exclusively by Finest at Sea, an independent West Coast company that utilizes the least invasive catching methods possible - often without bait or barbs. Five years ago, Batten opened her west end outlet with the goal of selling seafood only from sustainable sources. "We do bring in some fish that are on the watch list, but we try to convince people not to buy those products," says Batten.

Recognizing just how tough it is for consumers to hook their minds around what to eat from the sea, conservation groups and advocates in Canada have launched two programs - SeaChoice and Ocean Wise - that offer guidance, as well as trying to increase the awareness of threats to our oceans. Even then, sustainability can be a slippery issue. In Canada, where less than one per cent of the nation's oceans are protected by marine reserves, there are very few requirements for seafood labelling.

"All that a supplier needs to provide is what type of seafood it is," says Shauna MacKinnon, market campaign co-ordinator of the Living Oceans Society, Canada's largest organization focused on marine conservation issues and one of the five groups behind SeaChoice (along with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre and Sierra Club British Columbia). "There is no simple, cookie-cutter method to knowing what's guilt-free, and what is guilt-ridden."

Only four Edmonton restaurants are members of Ocean Wise so far, the free-to-join conservation program created by the Vancouver Aquarium to recognize distributors, restaurants and grocery stores promoting sustainable seafood. (Participants put the Ocean Wise logo by the sustainable choices on the menu or signage.) Of the four, just two are authentically local - Chop and the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald's Harvest Room. The other two are the Cactus Club Cafe and Panago Pizza. Across Canada, more than 300 businesses have joined Ocean Wise, which went national in the spring of 2009.

Chris Watson, head chef of Chop, acknowledges that Edmonton is slow on the uptake but remains optimistic: "I think it will eventually trickle its way through the Prairies, and one day become a standard here."

The lack of interest from non-coastal cities like Edmonton hasn't dampened Mike McDermid's optimism, either. The program manager of Ocean Wise says it takes time to educate consumers and businesses about making sustainable choices. "We realized that they needed someone to help them make those choices. You can't expect a business owner to be a marine biologist as well."

McDermid believes Canada's top chefs will help drive the initiative forward. "As more and more chefs realize there is a program available to them in Canada, I think it will grow very quickly."

Andrew Ihasz, executive chef of the Hotel Macdonald, introduced Ocean Wise's labelling to The Harvest Room's menu in February. Ihasz noticed many of his customers requesting more eco-friendly options, and since spring of last year, all Fairmont hotels have begun adopting a seafood watch program. Now, he says, about four out of five Harvest Room patrons are choosing to eat sustainable seafood.

MacKinnon predicts sustainability will be the next "thing" for celebrity chefs, because there's already a stigma building against TV chefs using red-listed products (seafood facing population or ecological troubles) in their cooking shows. She thinks sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring will become much more popular soon, overcoming their reputations as "cheap" fish. "They are oily, super healthy, low in contaminants, short-living, fast-growing, inexpensive and there is an abundant supply of them."

So if making sustainable choices for wild seafood is so tricky, what about farmed fish? According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 15 per cent of national seafood products are farmed. But that doesn't make them more sustainable, MacKinnon warns. "In some cases, wild is more sustainable," she says. For example, the majority of salmon aquaculture is farmed in open-net cages that make it more difficult to prevent the spread of disease, parasites and sea lice. Some of those salmon become fugitives and contaminate their wild counterparts. "Only one to five per cent of salmon that escape from [open-]net cages are recovered," notes MacKinnon. "They then compete with wild salmon for habitat and food."

In addition, farmed species have to be fed. It takes about five kilograms of anchovies to feed one kilogram of salmon, according to the David Suzuki Foundation.

As for fishing in the wild, one of the big problems, says McDermid of Ocean Wise, is the amount of bycatch (other fish caught unintentionally) because of mass-productivity methods such as bottom trawling, where massive nets drag across the ocean floor, catching everything in their path. He estimates as much as 30 per cent of catches are bycatch - thrown back into the sea, dead or dying.

Seafood watch programs and marine conservation programs like Ocean Wise are trying to get fisheries moving away from bottom trawling and toward the use of hook and line. For this to work, the industry needs to get more money for its product, since sustainable methods ultimately bring in less stock. But first, people need to start treating seafood like a luxury item, says McDermid. "We as consumers undervalue our food way too much."

For the individual consumer, MacKinnon suggests familiarizing yourself with information on the seafood you eat the most, rather than becoming overwhelmed with information about fish that aren't in your diet. To start, you can print a wallet-sized guide at seachoice.org, which lists the seafood that is sustainable enough to eat, critical to avoid or on the border.

"There is a lot of bad news out there about fisheries, and we are starting to understand that we really need to change what we are doing in the oceans," says McDermid. "How much we've turned things around in the last five years gives me optimism that we can change how things are done."