Blue mussels grow on a piece of rope dropped into the ocean from rafts.Eat right, eat fresh, eat seafood
Hey, when was the last time you were told that your consumption of anything was good for the planet?
Well, today, we can tell you just that, thanks to the Tennessee Aquarium and its “Serve and Protect” cooking demonstrations Thursday. That’s right: Eating fresh mussels is not only good for you, it’s also good for the ocean. And if it’s good for the ocean, it’s good for the planet.
The mussels are cheap, easy to clean, easy to cook, easy on the tongue, easy to farm in the ocean, offer a tremendous economic opportunity to U.S. coastal residents and — best of all — they are Mother Nature’s engineering miracles to filter our oceans. Just one mussel, slightly smaller than the palm of your hand, cleans two to four gallons of water an hour.
Not all seafood eating is sustainable, that is, good for the oceans and planet and for us. For instance, the demand for large predatory fish such as Bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod and Chilean sea bass make for classic examples of how not to manage fisheries. Consequently, as we’ve lost those top predators, we have begun “fishing down the food web.”