The line on fish, part two:
Sustainable seafood on the seashore

There’s a lot of seafood-related questions that are tough for the average consumer—and sometimes even the experienced chef—to sort out. For example, is it okay to eat swordfish and tuna? (Both are on the list of predator fish, which can contain high levels of mercury. Canned tuna is typically made from a smaller type of tuna.) Is salmon better when it’s wild or farmed? (Both have their benefits, but there are different types of salmon farming and some may produce a better fish in the end.) What types of fish have Omega 3 acids? (Cold-water oily fish like anchovies, mackerel, herring, salmon and sardines contain the highest levels, though lower levels of Omega 3s can be found in tuna as well.)

Judging by the amount of buzz it’s generating, one more question that’s going to be coming up tableside is, “Was this fish sustainably harvested?” After all, even Wal-Mart’s touting the benefits of sustainably harvested fish and good, bad or otherwise, when Wal-Mart gets behind something, it’s officially gone beyond the still-evolving area of a trend to officially becoming mainstream. The mega-retailer put its considerable purchasing heft behind sustainable seafood in the early part of this year, proclaiming that it would put wild-caught fresh and frozen fish in its stores in the states that had been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. And, according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor, Darden Restaurants—which owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden among other restaurants—said it would require that its shrimp farmers go through a certification process. Both long and short-range issues of supply and demand fuel this move since current estimates are that roughly 25 percent of the world’s fish supply are overfished or largely depleted. But, while the fish population has decreased, the human population continues to increase along with demand for protein.

But what exactly is sustainable seafood, and how does a chef, or a consumer, go about finding out what types of seafood are sustainable?

The Seafood Choices Alliance, an organization made up of more than 40 conservation and education organizations and 1,800 food sector professionals that promotes preservation-based seafood consumption, publishes a 152-page guide, “Sourcing Seafood: A Professional’s Guide to Procuring Ocean-friendly Fish and Shellfish.” In this guide, the Alliance’s definition of sustainable fishing says, in a nutshell, that fish must be “fished or farmed in a way that has little or no impact on the environment and whose numbers are considered to be ample.”

A recent stroll through the Midtown Global Market brought me by the Republic of Fish where they tout sustainability. The stall’s manager, Brian Stansberry, and owner, Albert Santa, spent a good deal of time researching the ins and outs of sustainably harvested fish and when it came down to it, they decided that this niche would serve their business well. They were also very willing to educate and inform customers about the benefits of the product.

“We found out that there’s not a great deal of attention being paid to the ecology of fishing and the laws aren’t really stringent enough,” says Stansberry. “Plus, there’s a really dominant trend among consumers toward taking care of your health and your body too, so between the two we thought it would be a smooth idea to make customers aware of all of the issues.”

And there are a lot of issues that come up, when you start to look. For example, did you know that Chilean sea bass is often illegally fished, and that the stocks of this fish are severely depleted? Or that Atlantic cod, another species in decline, is caught with bottom trawls—nets dragged along the ocean floor—causing damage to habitat and picking up a lot of other species along the way?

So, in order to bring sustainable seafood to restaurants and consumers in the Twin Cities the Republic of Fish delved into the world of sustainable fishing, teamed up with fisheries and partners around the world and learned about everything from training themselves and their staff to their customers, getting information out and even correctly labeling the fish that they monger. “We’re dealing with fisheries from around the world and we’ve been able to find a lot of great ones,” says Sansberry. “You learn where things come from, work with people who caught it and it’s all come together. And so far, the response has been really positive and great.”

Oceanaire is making it a goal to use more sustainable fish in the restaurants as well. “We don’t want to empty the seas. We want to make smart purchases and also train our guests. So we’re always looking for products that fit that bill,” says executive chef Rick Kimmes. According to Kimmes, the Oceanaire restaurants on the East and West coasts have been hearing about sustainable seafood for a bit longer than the breadbasket location, but, he says, locally he hears more and more of his peers beginning to discuss sustainable and seafood in the same breath.

You can download the sustainable sourcing guide mentioned in the article at www.seafoodchoices.com or log onto the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program web site (www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch) for additional resources and a great list of links for more information about all kinds of fish-related topics.