If you read this blog with any regularity you know we’re constantly reminding the press about our objections to many of the seafood pocket guides that have been proliferating in recent years. In short, we find them often contradictory and confusing, something that we know can actually lead to consumers eating less fish and not eating enough to enjoy the full health benefits from Omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients like Vitamin D.

Furthermore, as the guides have no independent oversight, we find that many of the determinations concerning sustainability to be scientifically flimsy at best.

The latest example of the media falling for one of these guides comes from Oprah.com which ran a story by Graham Hill, the founder of TreeHugger.com. Hill is hardly a disinterested party, he’s a full-fledged environmental activist. As for Monterey Bay Aquarium, they are an environmental lobbying group, not a nutrition organization, and ought to be treated as such.

One wonders why Oprah.com didn’t send an actual reporter to talk to an expert from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administraton (NOAA). That agency is famous for publishing FishWatch, its own independent online seafood guide one that is transparent and clearly science based.