Bass Ackwards

It's Marine News Day here at Grist Magazine and therefore our duty to report that more than 90 restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange counties in Southern California will pledge Tuesday to pull Chilean sea bass from their menus in an effort to save the fish from overfishing and possible extinction. The Chilean sea bass was born in the early 1990s, when spin masters renamed the Patagonian toothfish and propelled the fish into the spotlight of the seafood industry. That was bad news for the fish, which can take 10 years to grow to sexual maturity, making it highly vulnerable to overfishing; experts fear the fish could go extinct in as little as five years. To prevent that, restaurants nationwide are being encouraged by environmental groups to join the "Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass" campaign, which began in Northern California, Chicago, and Houston, and is expected to spread to the East Coast this summer.