Buying fish is not easy, especially as we continue to hear that the oceans are showing signs of distress and that the sustainability of certain marine life is in question.

This awareness came front and center when the Monterey Bay Aquarium released its first Seafood Watch pocket guide in 1999. It was a color-coded sustainability rating guide to help foodies make informed choices when selecting wild-caught seafood. The guide is broken down into three sections: 1) green/best choice: the species are abundant and caught in environmentally friendly ways; 2) yellow/good alternative: there are some concerns about the status or catch methods with these species; and 3) red/avoid: the species suffer from overfishing or the current fishing methods harm other marine life or habitats.

Whole Foods Market and at least one local restaurant have recently stepped up to help us make our fish purchasing even easier. Just before the June Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Whole Foods Market announced that its stores will no longer sell red-rated seafood.

“As of April 22, all our wild-caught seafood is either certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), or is yellow or green-rated,” David Pilat, global seafood coordinator for Whole Foods Market, said during the Aspen event’s Fishmonger Face-Off contest. “We will no longer sell red-rated wild-caught seafood. We feel this will help shoppers easily purchase responsibly caught seafood from fisheries certified sustainable by the MSC, or rated green or yellow by the Blue Ocean Institute or Monterey Bay Aquarium with ease and confidence.”

Both local Whole Foods Markets have a section in the seafood cabinet that is empty bearing a no red-rated sign to indicate that the following are no longer for purchase: Atlantic halibut, grey sole (Atlantic), octopus, skate wing, sturgeon, swordfish (from specific areas and using catch methods rated “red”), tautog, trawl-caught Atlantic cod, tuna (from specific areas and catch methods rated “red”), turbot, imported wild shrimp and rockfish (certain species).

Whole Foods Market didn’t leave customers high and dry when favorite fish were taken from the store.

“The company is doing an outstanding job at finding alternatives to the red-rated fish that are sustainable caught and similar in flavor and texture,” said Sarah Arnold, store marketing specialist at Whole Foods Market, 7635 N. Academy Blvd. “For example, the comparable fish to red snapper (a fish that was red-rated and discontinued) that we carry that is sustainable caught and quiet delicious is the yelloweyed rockfish.”

They also are stepping up to help customers with fish education efforts.

“We have begun a new program called Ocean Watch Wednesdays,” she said. “We offer a sustainable caught fish for a great price and educating our customer about the fish that are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.”

Adam’s Mountain Cafe, 934 Manitou Ave., in Manitou Springs decided to take a stand as well.

“We began purchasing fish according to the guidelines put forth by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Sustainable Watch list in 2009,” said Farley McDonough, who owns the restaurant with her husband, David. “We purchase only what is on the ‘best choice’ list. So we buy U.S. arctic char, barramundi, Atlantic cod, U.S. halibut, U.S. striped bass and tilapia. We purchase all our salmon from Shetland’s Best Organic Farm raised off the coast of Scotland. We also buy only U.S. shrimp from the Seafood Watch list. I understand that the Marine Stewardship Council and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch organization work together to be consistent.”

Still there’s confusion, especially when it comes to Chilean sea bass – which is at the top of the no-no list, depending on which environmental list you are relying on.

“We did run Corvina sea bass as a special once (from the best choice list),” she said, “and a customer chewed us out for selling Chilean sea bass! He didn’t know there was a difference between sea bass.”

So you know, Chilean sea bass is not bass at all. It’s a Patagonian toothfish that was marketed as Chilean sea bass. But the tasty fish became the darling of restaurant menus, was overfished and ended up on the “not sustainable fish” watch list.

So how can you do your part to do right by the ocean? It boils down to a few things, according to Clare Leschin-Hoar, honored as a “Sustainable Seafood Champion” in 2011 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium for her writing on seafood.

“Know where your seafood comes from,” she says. “Look for U.S.-caught or raised seafood because our own country’s standards are far more stringent than those elsewhere. If a seafood item’s price is too good to be true, it is.

“And keep asking questions. Wild fish stocks fluctuate, and sometimes scientists get it wrong. If cod was believed to be sustainable one season, data can change, and it may not hold true the next. Push chefs, fishmongers and anyone who is making seafood decisions to do the right thing. After all, there are only so many fish in the sea.”

That’s good for us. At least there are a couple of places where reeling in seafood responsibly doesn’t require extra thought and planning ahead of time.

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Contact Teresa J. Farney at 636-0271, Twitter@tffoodie, FacebookTeresa Farney