For 2011 we’re going to do a bit more with our Weekly dose of TED series. Instead of just posting a video each week, we’re going to include a short discussion of either the entire talk or a point that could be expanded.

The idea that, when it comes to seafood, we may not know what we are actually eating is a major problem. Beyond the whale/dolphin debate, how many of us can honestly distinguish among all the seafood we eat? I once went into a few local restaurants to surreptitiously test the tuna they served. Some tuna was tuna, some was grouper, some was Nile perch, but all of it looked the same when cooked. In many cases this is not a case of restaurants misleading customers, or even being mislead themselves, but simply a problem with the length of the supply chain. The more intermediates that a piece of fish has to go through to get from the boat to your table, the more chances there are for it to be misidentified. In general, the places serving local fish were far less likely to have something misidentified. The problem is that this really throws a wrench into the principle of supply side conservation if we are unable to honestly choose our seafood.

~Southern Fried Scientist