I've been doing a lot of reading lately about the fishing industry. I love fish—it's so good for you, and easy to prepare, and incredibly versatile. But I can't help but feel guilty about wolfing down tuna nigiri at my favorite sushi restaurant, or seeing the huge bags of shrimp at Costco and thinking about the havoc that might have been wreaked to get them to these sterile sacks in the freezer case.

I know that the most responsible thing would be to swear off fish entirely. There's plenty of evidence out there that any type of fishing and aquaculture is bad news for the environment. In fact, I plan to read a book that a fellow lime blogger recommended a few months back, The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat, by Charles Clover.

I'm sure that book will scare me into giving up seafood. But for now, I'm pledging to explore some of the better fish choices that are available, and, even if it might cost a little more, choose responsibly caught and farmed fish over varieties that are damaging to the environment because of farming or catching methods that result in by-catching, pollution or damage to the environment.

There's plenty of information out there to help me on my quest. Environmental Defense publishes a handy pocket guide to the best and worst choices of fish from both a health and environmental standpoint. And the Monterey Bay Aquarium also publishes a guide that's even broken down to what part of the country you're in.

This week as I was planning my menu, I decided that I'd try to buy a fish I'd never made before, from Environmental Defense's list. Funnily enough, on the "best choices" list, among the fish they'd indicated were both high in omega-3s and low in contaminants, there weren't really any fish that I hadn't tried. Anchovies? My favorite pizza topping. Oysters? Love ‘em, but not in Atlanta in the summer. Salmon? I eat it so frequently I'm getting bored with it.

That left Herring, which seems more appropriate to be pickled, and Sablefish, or Black Cod. I found some cod recipes on Cooking Light's Web site, and I also decided to look for Striped Bass at the fish store, which is on the "best choices" list, although it isn't necessarily super-rich in omega-3s. Black Cod proved to be too expensive ($18.99/pound!), but Striped Bass was a little better, at $14.99/pound. I plan on using a recipe I found for Striped Bass with Fennel over Sauteed Spinach. I'll let you know how it turns out.

In short, what I found out from all of my recent reading about the best fish to buy is that you should focus on smaller fish that are lower on the food chain, particularly ones that are not carnivorous (sorry, salmon lovers!). That's why anchovies and sardines are on that list, and why farmers in Central America are having good luck with farming tilapia. Speaking of fish farming, farmed fish has gotten a bad rap, but there are plenty of fish farmers out there who are doing more responsible work. Look for wild-caught fish that bears the Marine Stewardship Council seal-it means that it's been sustainably caught. Whole Foods might be a splurge, but I know that any fish I buy from there has already been vetted by its team of buyers as being responsibly farmed or caught. It's actually one of the few places I'll buy seafood from these days.

And with tuna being so high in mercury, I'm switching to canned salmon for things like tuna salad—I bought some last week and was surprised to discover that it is surprisingly similar in flavor to canned tuna. For lunch, I mix it with a couple of spoonfuls of nonfat yogurt and low-fat mayonnaise, plus diced celery, a handful of rinsed capers, and a few shakes of Tabasco sauce. It makes a great sandwich filling.

In My Kitchen
Every week, I tally my grocery bill, and give you a peek at what's on the dinner table at our house.

Groceries: $81.56

• Fresh mozzarella, spinach and mushroom calzones
• Striped Bass with Fennel over Sauteed Spinach
• Seared Flank Steak, Sauteed Mushrooms and Brown Rice Pilaf