If you're like me, you probably want to help save world's marine species from extinction. One way to do this is by choosing the fish you eat very carefully.
If you want to eat only the most environmentally sustainable, healthy fish available, then you should check out the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone services.
While you're shopping at the grocery store or contemplating a restaurant's menu, you can send a text to FishPhone at 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish or other edible sea creature (such as mussels and mollusks) that you're considering eating. Within just a few seconds you'll receive a reply with the Blue Ocean Institute's complete assessment of the fish's environmental status.
If you don't want to pay the standard text messaging rates, you can access www.fishphone.org on your cell phone and scan through the comprehensive listings on your own. Also, if you actually have time to sit down at a computer, you can find the Blue Ocean Institute's seafood listings here.
FishPhone offers assessments for more than 90 species of often-eaten sea critters. The Blue Ocean Institute evaluates the animals according to each species' history, habitat issues, population in the wild, and farming and catching methods. Blue Ocean also lets you know if a species has any health advisories, such as tuna's high levels of mercury and farmed salmon's high levels of dioxin.
I've been using fishphone to plan my grocery shopping trips and it's worked quite well for me. I feel like I've been able to make a few of those small steps that add up to a big positive impact on the environment.
And my guiltless dinners have been quite tasty. 
-MJ Schindler, aka Kitty Mowmow
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Hi MJ,
Thanks for mentioning Fish Phone on the site. I work with the company that provides the technology to Blue Ocean Institute.
How many times have you used the service? There are some users that use it almost daily, just wondering if you are one of them??
Great pic, and awesome writeup. If you want to see more about the technology you can watch this screen cast – http://mcommons.com/screencasts
Also there are a lot of organizations doing similar/cool things. If you ever want to know about them, I’m happy to discuss.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
I checked out the screen cast, and Mobile Commons looks awesome! I’m definitely keeping you guys in mind, in case KittyMowmow.com finds good use for that technology. I’m also going to pass the word along to some of my friends in web-development.
I’ve used Fish Phone about four or five times so far, and I really, really like it. I don’t eat seafood terribly often or I’d probably use it more.
Thanks for contacting me.
-MJ Schindler, aka Kitty Mowmow