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Iwana and iwashi are in. Tai and toro are out. Uni? Sake? Well, depending on where they are sourced, and how they are caught, they could be either.

A new pocket-sized guide is hoping sushi lovers are ready to take a closer look at that lunchtime maki roll.

Launching at restaurants in Vancouver and Halifax tomorrow, SeaChoice's Sustainable Sushi Guide is designed to help diners determine whether the raw fish on the menu is eco-friendly - and, it is hoped, to change attitudes about sushi in the same way that existing programs have focused attention on sustainability in a growing number of Western restaurants.

The free, downloadable guide is divided into seafood that is available in abundance and environmentally sustainable, including farmed arctic char (iwana), wild Pacific sardine (iwashi) and wild Dungeness crab (kani); seafood to be consumed infrequently because of concerns over stocks or impact on the ecosystem, including wild blue, king and snow crab and wild B.C. salmon (sake); and seafood to avoid, including farmed Atlantic salmon, freshwater eel (unagi) and wild red snapper (tai).

In many cases, the source is the key: For example, wild sea urchin (uni) from Canada gets a green light, while wild sea urchin from Maine gets a red light.

But topping a maki roll with unagi, or presenting glistening slices of top-notch hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi - another fish on the avoid list - are a sushi chef's bread-and-butter. Changing such established practices in this market is an uphill task.

"Sushi is one of the most common ways people eat fish out of the home," says Shauna MacKinnon, markets campaigner at Living Oceans Society, which teamed up with SeaChoice and other environmental groups to create the Sustainable Sushi Guide.

"There just hasn't been the same focus on sustainability in sushi and other Asian restaurants in general."

There are problems at both ends of the price spectrum, Ms. MacKinnon says. "We have farmed Atlantic salmon being used because it's cheap, and at the other end of the scale we have Bluefin tuna, which faces commercial extinction by 2012 if we keep eating it at the same rate."

Mike McDermid of Ocean Wise agrees that the scope of the sustainability campaign needed to be broadened. "In the Asian market generally, there's a disconnect between the information already out there and the seafood still being used. But sometimes we have to get away from our traditional options - move out of our comfort zones."

When environmentalist and sustainable fishing expert Casson Trenor began writing his book Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time a couple of years ago, he knew it would create waves. "I was very aware that the response from restaurateurs would be: 'That's impossible,' " he sighs down the phone from San Francisco.

But as he was putting the book to bed, Mr. Trenor met two sushi chefs, Raymond Ho and Kin Lui, who wanted to open a restaurant that was less damaging to the ocean ecosystem.

In February, 2008, the trio opened San Francisco's Tataki restaurant, which he calls "the world's first sustainable sushi restaurant." Since then, another sustainable sushi restaurant - Portland's Bamboo Sushi - has opened for business.

In Vancouver, Nobu Ochi, executive chef of Zen, says he has been considering the move for over a year. "We have been doing our own research for some time now, but we decided to join Ocean Wise because we really need help sourcing out menu alternatives."

Mr. Ochi has already removed all the international and compromised whitefish, such as Boston flounder, from the menu at Zen, substituting local halibut and farmed California striped bass.

Unagi is a big concern for him, he says. "There is no obvious alternative to it, and it is something we will eventually have to take off."

In Yaletown's swanky Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar, the challenges are displayed in perfect microcosm: One side of the restaurant is an award-winning Pacific Northwest high-end restaurant; the other is a sushi raw bar run by a traditional Japanese sushi master.

Frank Pabst, executive chef of the Western side, is a huge believer in the Ocean Wise program. He even instituted an annual Unsung Heroes menu, where less popular seafood such as cockles and sardines are showcased. The issue of sustainability is discussed in detail in the new Blue Water Cafe cookbook.

But on the raw bar side of the restaurant, headed up by sushi chef Yoshi Tabo, unagi and hamachi, for example, are still on the menu.

Both chefs agree that unagi will likely be replaced soon, probably by anago (seawater eel). They are also trying to find a regular source for Hawaiian Kona Kampachi as an alternative to hamachi.

When it comes to tuna, part of the problem, Mr. Pabst and Mr. Ochi agree, is getting hold of the right information from suppliers.

"In the Japanese fish markets, it's not always easy to identify which red tuna has been caught by long-line [which risks by-catch of threatened and endangered species] or troll-pole [which is considered better because it is a simpler hook-and-line method]," Mr. Pabst explains. "It makes it very difficult for a traditional Japanese sushi bar to be completely sustainable."

Ocean Wise accreditation does not require that a restaurant be 100-per-cent sustainable, just that it is promoting positive choices and working to remove unsustainable items, Mr. McDermid points out. "Great chefs have the capacity to change our cultural tastes, and an educated consumer can also drive the change by making a decision to only buy the sustainable option on the menu."

Mr. Trenor is less patient. He wants to see sushi chefs taking a clear stand.

"Otherwise, it's a cop-out," he argues. "The bottom line is you go sustainable or you all go out of business eventually anyway - when we run out of fish."

To download a copy of the

Sustainable Sushi Guide, go to http://www.seachoice.org/page/guides

***

The end of unagi?

A selection of advisories from SeaChoice's new sushi guide:

Best choice:

Ebi (shrimp): wild, N.S., trap

Gindara (sablefish/black cod): wild, B.C. & Alaska

Hotate (scallops): farmed,

off-bottom

Iwana (arctic char): farmed

Some concerns

Ebi: wild, Atlantic & Gulf of

Mexico; farmed, U.S.

Kampachi (yellowtail):

farmed, U.S.

Hotate: wild, U.S. Atlantic

Sake (salmon): wild, B.C.

Avoid:

Ebi: farmed & wild, imported,

except U.S.

Hotate: wild, Canada Atlantic.

Toro (bluefin tuna): wild

Unagi (freshwater eel): farmed

Source: SeaChoice Sustainable Sushi Guide