WASHINGTON — A panel of food industry experts at a conference at the Smithsonian Institution urged attendees to use the power of the market to ease the quest for vulnerable marine life, and suggested consumers take a break from tuna and salmon and try other species.

The panel was part of a program that brought together chefs, scientists, fishermen and fish purveyors to discuss the sustainability of the country's seafood supply.

One restaurant owner-panelist urged the public to "move off the tuna-salmon-swordfish mentality," according to a report from Washington Post staff writer Julie Eilperin. Sardines, farm-raised shellfish and Alaskan black cod were suggested as alternatives.

Coming to no solid conclusion, the conference underscored the complex choices consumers face in supermarkets and restaurants in the face of the world's dwindling fish stocks, Eilperin wrote. A number of fish farmers who attended the meeting argued that aquaculture was part of the solution.

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