FishPhone Puts Seafood Information in the Palm of Your Hand

FishPhone - Main ScreenWhen it comes to fish, it's impressive how little we often know about the fish on our plates and where it comes from when we go out to eat or head to our local grocery store. If you're lucky, your grocer will label packages of fish with whether it's been farmed or wild caught, but you likely won't get more information than that. With the FishPhone iPhone app from the Blue Ocean Institute, you have a wealth of information about the type of fish you're looking at and whether it's been sustainably farmed or caught right on your iPhone. Also, the app features recipes and wine pairings to help you prepare the perfect meal to go with the perfect seafood.

If you're a foodie or a seafood lover, FishPhone is one of those apps that's worth having on your phone for the times when you either want to look up a fish you're interested in or plan a lovely meal. The app reminds me of Seafood Watch from the Monterey Bay Aquarium: another free app that helps you make smart and environmentally-conscious seafood buying and dining decisions.

Once you have FishPhone installed, you can use the app to look up a specific type of fish that you've found on a menu or that someone has suggested for your next meal. Each fish in the seafood guide has an icon next to it that represents the sustainability or environmental friendliness of the fish in question.

For example, if the fish icon is green, it means that the species in question is plentiful, and that methods used to farm or catch the fish are sustainable and cause little human damage to its habitat. If the icon is orange however, it means the fish is relatively rare and/or the methods used to catch or farm it cause significant human damage to the environment. There are five colors each with increasing severity: dark green, light green, yellow, orange, and red. Fish with a red icon are clearly ones you want to stay away from, while fish that are dark and light green are ones that are most sustainable and best to buy.

FishPhone - Key and Wine PairingIn addition to providing information about the sustainability and environmental friendliness, FishPhone also provides recipes and wine pairings that go with specific fish. The Blue Ocean Institute partnered with New Zealand winery Brancott Vineyards to provide wine selections for most of the fish included in the database and for all of the ones that are ocean-friendly.  

Once you've settled on a sustainable fish to buy, and you have a wine to go with it, you'll probably need a recipe to help you prepare the fish as well. FishPhone has recipes and preparation suggestions in the database from chefs across the globe, complete with cooking methods and specific ingredients that work well with the fish you're planning to buy.

FishPhone is free in the iTunes App Store, and even if you don't have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can text the Institute with the name of the fish you're interested in to get a response with information about it. If you're a seafood lover and you want to make sure your favorite tasty fish are around for you and others to enjoy in the future, apps like FishPhone can help you make smart decisions about what is or isn't worth buying.
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