Thanks so much to Jay Weinstein, for his great guest post.  Jay is a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, is a New York based food writer, editor, culinary instructor, and cookbook author. His food articles and recipes have been featured in The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Newsday, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, and numerous other publications. His latest book, The Ethical Gourmet, focuses on ecologically sustainable fine foods. He teaches culinary arts at The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City.

Straight out of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in 1988, I went to work for Jasper White, the Boston chef who would become my mentor. I still remember how he told me that Atlantic salmon were commercially extinct. We were beginning to use a new salmon raised in a Canadian aquaculture operation that was a cross-breed of farmed Norwegian salmon, and wild Atlantic salmon. “Better half wild than not wild at all,” he quipped.

Since that time, the New England rivers that provided genetic stock for that ‘80s hybrid have suffered the excesses of the salmon farming industry, and the American public has been exposed to the pollution, pesticides, artificial colorants, and epidemics that salmon aquaculture has brought to our shores. We’ve lamented the megaton hauls of wild “feeder” fish dumped into the insatiable maw of the big salmon business, which built salmon into the most consumed fish in America.

While most consumers seem content to keep on buying factory-farmed salmon because it’s cheap, reliably fresh, and inoffensively mild in taste, some eco-savvy Americans who are concerned about the decline of ocean fish, river biodiversity, and humane treatment of animals rail against fish farming as an environmental disaster. Mention farmed fish to them, and they’ll say that wild is the only choice for fish-eaters with a conscience. Fish farming, after all, has done such damage. But there’s a problem with their argument too.

At current rates of consumption, wild stocks could not meet demand. And demand is growing. Sure, Alaskan fisheries that provide most of our wild salmon are among the best-managed in the world. And yes, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has closed salmon fisheries on the Sacramento, Klamath and Copper Rivers to protect stocks from overexploitation. But those fisheries are either tightly managed or closed to prevent their subspecies from annihilation, not to keep them productive enough to meet all US (let alone worldwide) demand. For fish to have a future, consumers must do two things: Consume fish less frequently, and choose the most ecologically sound farmed and wild varieties at market:

Tilapia: A mostly herbivorous species, tilapia from Nile waters have adapted phenomenally well to pond aquaculture. While it takes about three pounds of fish meal to add one pound to the weight of a farmed salmon and for cod the feed-to-flesh ratio is five to one, tilapia, at below 2:1, have the best feed-to-flesh ratio of any animal species. They naturally school tightly together, alleviating the problem of confinement, and their waste can be used as natural agricultural fertilizer. Tilapia fish is an excellent culinary choice, with resilient white fillets, and an ability to retain juiciness under most cooking methods. It is delicious and mild whether fried, roasted, baked, sautéed, or broiled.

Striped Bass: When I was cooking in Boston in the 1980s, my chef conscientiously boycotted wild striped bass, which was at the brink of extinction due to overfishing. In the ensuing years, several states banned the harvest of this toothsome fish, and elsewhere, aquaculture operations sprung up to farm-raise it. Both efforts, I’m happy to say, were successful. The farm-raised fish are a hybrid of wild striped bass and white bass which, while lacking the deep fish essence of the wild, offer the delicate flesh and pleasing savory flavor characteristic of “stripers.” Thousands of ponds and tanks cultivate these delicious food fish throughout the United States, making them not only an excellent culinary choice, but a sustainable domestic industry for small-scale and large scale growers alike. Thanks to responsible fishery management, wild striped bass has rebounded from its 1980s lows, and is now permitted as a limited catch. It’s excellent grilled, baked in a salt crust, and steamed whole.

Catfish: Once derided as poor man’s food, catfish native to the American south were fished from streams and channels in and around the Mississippi Delta and other bayous. That type of “channel cat” is still found in the region, but the catfish most Americans see in their markets was farm-raised in ponds, either in the southern states, or overseas, particularly in Southeast Asia. Farmed catfish is vastly superior in flavor and texture to wild. And domestic producers employ far higher environmental standards in producing this clean-tasting, firm-fleshed fish than do most fish farmers in Asia. American catfish is an exceptional fillet that takes well to marinades and rubs, and retains a buttery juiciness when blackened, fried, stir-fried, or stewed.

Arctic Char: Like salmon, there are both fresh water and sea running subspecies of char, both of which share salmon’s variably pink flesh and profound fish flavor. Canada has led the way in cultivating char in land-based re-circulating fish “raceways,” which enable the fish to maintain their naturally fast-swimming behavior, while protecting waterways from pollution and escapes of non-native fish. The raceways also protect the fish from disease transfer and allow markets to buy fish that have been pulled from the water literally the same day as they are to be served. This higher degree of freshness is one of the advantages of aquaculture, as opposed to wild-caught fishing that often delivers fish to market days after they were caught.

Barramundi: American fish farmers now cultivate this fast growing Australian native in closed, land-based systems that protect natural ecosystems. It’s raised in Massachusetts, where its wastes are donated to local farms for use as fertilizer. High in omega-3 fatty acids, barramundi is an especially healthy fish choice, and chefs love it for its delicate, buttery white flesh and its edible skin, which crisps exquisitely in both the sauté pan and on the grill. Domestic barramundi is rated as a top choice by all the major ocean stewardship organizations because of its eco-friendly cultivation methods and its high feed to flesh ratio. Its diet is largely vegetarian, making it a sustainable, delicious fish option.

Wild Winners: The striped bass fisheries on the US east coast have rebounded, so they are a good wild catch. Smaller fish like mackerels, sardines, herrings and smelts are low on the food chain, so they are both populous and fast-reproducing. It’s much better for us to catch them for fresh fish on our own tables than to grind them up for livestock feed, wasting up to four pounds of them to yield one pound of some other fish. Wild arctic char is also plentiful and faster-reproducing than its cousin, salmon. Black cod from Pacific waters has the same pleasing richness as the overharvested Chilean sea bass but is not under as much pressure from fishing fleets. And Atlantic mahi-mahi is caught by pole, rather than long-lines, resulting in lower bycatch.

The best eco choices remain mollusks like clams, oysters and mussels, whose cultivation not only thrives without negative impacts on wild populations, but actually helps keep coastal waters free of oxygen-depleting algae blooms. With a balance between responsibly raised aquaculture fish and select varieties from the sea, we can continue to go half wild.