As a person who is intimately concerned about the state of our ocean’s health and fish stocks, etc., I was pleased to see these two applications available now for the iPhone! 

I’ve just gotten both these applications and I thought I’d let everyone know my initial thoughts on them.

The Seafood Watch logo here above (click for more data); you might be familiar with the program from the small folding cards they have produced over the past few years.  While I liked their cards, it seemed I never had one around when I needed it; plus the cards get updated periodically and I couldn’t be sure I had the latest one.  Now with the Seafood Watch iPhone App, it is right there on my phone, gets updated as needed, and there is no paper waste, etc.  Additionally, you used to need a separate Seafood Watch card for each region; now with the iPhone they are all in one application shown below:

Also note the Sushi Guide - very, very useful!  Here are a couple of screen shots of the interface:

What is difficult about the Seafood Watch Application is there is no “Search” function, and the categories of “Best Choice”, “Avoid”, etc., are not laid out as nice as they were on the folding Seafood Watch Cards.  Still, it is a valuable and FREE application!

But, if you really want an alternate seafood app that is very easy to use, pay .99 cents and get the iPhone Application, Safe Seafood (click on logo below for link to additional data on it):

Now Safe Seafood App could use a “search” function also, but it is laid out better and I find it much more user friendly.  Here are some screen shots from my iPhone:

Main difference here is Safe Seafood App has the “Good to Bad” options listed in order:

What I really liked about the Safe Seafood App is the descriptions of the fish and other seafood, photos and the link to Wikipedia for more information.  Many of these fish have odd names when sold for consumption, so I’ve found it really interesting to get all this data on the seafood quickly; put 2 + 2 together so to speak, so I can make wise decisions.  Here are more screen shots:

Note: I was particularly interested to see the accurate description of the black sea bass (above); I spent a lot of time underwater, with NOAA, surveying, measuring, etc., the black sea bass at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary

- 17 miles offshore Georgia.

So both of these applications for the iPhone are really worth having; to go further than that, they are the responsible way to go if you consume seafood.  Get educated!  Yes, they both could use some search features, but for .99 cents for both applications (free for Seafood Watch and .99 cents for Safe Seafood - with 10% going to Environmental Defense Fund) - well, it is a no-brainer to get and use them, if you care about the future of our ocean-life and our own health as humans too.  It is disturbing the amount of seafood that has “contaminant” warnings for consumption.  Clearly, things need to change and we can help, even with seemingly small increases in awareness; that leads to increased understanding, then positive action and change.

Best, Carol

*Update* 22 Feb 09 - Monterey Bay Aquarium sent me a “Twitter” reply, quoted below, as to their “Search” function that is with Apple for approval:

check it out at Twitter at MBA Twitter Site

“@oceangrant We have a rev of the Seafood Watch iPhone app with search in review w/ Apple. Sorting by rating is on the buildout plan”