Now your cellphone can help you make choices that limit your impact on our oceans by making informed choices about the fish you eat.

A new SMS tool from SASSI (The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative), FishMS, puts WWF’s knowledge of seafood resources at your thumb-tips.

Simply text the name of a fish to the number 079-499-8795 and you’ll immediately get a message telling you whether to tuck in, think twice or avoid completely.

The feature resulted from cooperation between SASSI), local IT company iVeri Payment Technology and developer Tony Seebregts. SASSI has condensed the research on the impact of fishing on fish stocks into guidelines available in a handy pocket card in laymen's terms this distills information on the status of local seafood species into one of three colour categories, much like a traffic light.

Species marked with a green fish can generally be eaten with a clear conscience because their population numbers are healthy. Orange means they're legal to sell, but if you have a choice you should opt for one of the “green species”. Species marked in red are illegal to buy or sell in South Africa. Full details of how the classification system works are online at www.wwf.org.za/sassi

Now you can still make the right choice, even without the card. The more specific the query, the more detailed the information received.

Jaco Barendse, coordinator of SASSI, says: “Cellphones are the one common possession of everyone from surfers to stockbrokers, taxi drivers to taxidermists - even my dad has one.

“That’s why this is the ideal way to combine technology and information with the variety of seafood available and the growing awareness among seafood lovers, chefs, food buyers and so on that the oceans’ resources aren’t infinite.”

He adds that the system not only helps consumers make informed choices, it demonstrates to retailers and restaurateurs that those consumers are willing to use their spending power.

“When shoppers and restaurant patrons start texting to check whether the Catch of the Day is okay to eat, it’ll hopefully help drive suppliers’ buying habits.”

SASSI is funded by The Green Trust (a partnership between WWF-SA and Nedbank),

“We believe SASSI FishMS provides consumers and anyone else working with fish with a handy and extremely cool tool to help choose fish from healthy populations and relieve the pressure on overexploited species. By giving them a break their populations can recover and they can once again become more widely available.

“By not buying fish caught and sold illegally you can help to fight unsustainable environmental practice. Your choices can help ensure the sustainable use of our marine resources.”

SASSI FishMS is charged at standard text message rates.