HOW TO BE A RESPONSIBLE SEAFOOD CONSUMER
How to find the right fish in the sea.
As a seafood consumer concerned about the health of our oceans, I was shocked by a recent Associated Press investigation that raised concerns about New York-based national distributor Sea to Table, a trusted seafood purveyor.
DNA tests discovered th atthe company’s “New York-sourced” yellowfin tuna likely came from elsewhere, and reporters also traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters, “who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins.” Sea to Table had claimed its products wer ee nvironmentally sound, wild and directly traceable to a U.S. dock and even boat.
How can we, as responsible consumers, be sure that what we are eating meets the standards that we wish to uphold? The issue is complex, and challenges abound. Adding to the seafood debate is the notion that farmed fish is ofte n not a viable solution because the farming methods can do more harm than good.
But technological innovations and advances, including datadriven seafood traceability systems and more farms developing sustainable, clean aquacul- ture practices, give us hope. In Austin, we also have advocates in which to trust.
“It matters where you get your fish from,” says Jay Huang, director of culinary operations at Lucky Robot. “How do they fish it? Is it farmed on muddy bottom tanks, open pens, raised ponds? What is the feed-to-fish ratio?” (The industry standard is a whopping 4 pounds of feeder fish per pound of raised fish, whichis detrimental to wild fish populations and disrupts the natural food chain of the ecosystem.)
Awar eo f the popularity of certain sushi fish, Huang has sought to replace them with similar-tasting, sustainable options. Instead of fatty bluefin tuna, he makes chiki toro with the more sustain---
able bigeye tuna and tops it with house-cured lardo to mimic the buttery texture. He uses Hawaiian Kona kampachi instead of hamachi, which is farmed in dense pens close to the shore, and instead of seabass he uses a hybrid striped bass from a farm in Colorado that uses spring water in raised ponds.
Other sustainable alternatives found at Lucky Robot — and your well-stocked local grocery store or a seafood market, such as Quality Seafood, Whole Foods or Central Market — include Arctic char and Alcomo jack, as well as horse mackerel that is farmed-raised in Japan, all at well under 1.4:1 feed ratio. These efforts have recently recognized Lucky Robot as the only sushi restaurant in Texas that is an official partner of Seafood Watch, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sustainable seafood advocacy program.
To avoid fish fraud, Huang relies on trusted supplier Julian Choi with local outfit Minomoto, who has close relationships with wild fish importers, farms and producers that adhere to quotas. But he also follows his own moral compass — for instance, choosing not to serve any kind of tuna on Tuesdays in June.
“It is the beginning of breeding season for Pacific bluefin tuna in the Sea of Japan, and although we do not use any bluefin tuna at Lucky, we want to bring awareness to its declining population,” he says. “We believe important parts of sustainability are responsible sourcing, respect and using the (whole) product and, lastly, restraint and abstinence. Nature is resilient, and sometimes it just needs a little time to heal and catch up.”
At a sustainable seafood panel at South by Southwest this year, Sheila Bowman, the manager of culinary and strategic initiatives at Seafood Watch, stated that there are more than 2,000 species of fish we could eat, yet we only eat 10 percent of them, including the big three: shrimp, salmon and tuna. Her solution is to expand our fish-eating horizons, do some research and ask questions.
Chef-turned-fishman Ben McBride supplies many of his former colleagues via his fledgling company Heritage Seafood, which focuses on upholding high-quality standards on products from the Gulf. McBride drives his truck five days a week to dock in Galveston and Freeport, working to cultivate relationships with fishermen who allow him to have choice picks for his clients by helping unload the catch. He sorts shrimp by hand in Angleton, searches for increasingly elu-
sive bycatch (“all the chefs want it”) and engages in real conversations and relationships with chefs.
With experience running kitchens from Parkside to Uchi and Perla’s, McBride knows what catches a chef ’s eye, but knows it’s up to consumers to demand diversity on our plates. “We have to prove to the fishermen in the Gulf that people will buy fish like king mackerel, or fresh squid,” he says. “They have to find value in it. Right now, I am just scraping the surface on how to do it.”
He currently caters to 25 local chefs and ships crawfish in season as far as Arizona and California. But all this comes at a price. “Allocations are important for fishermen, and (they) impact availability,” he says. “And after Hurricane Harvey, diversity has changed.” Popular Gulf fish such as snapper, grouper and tilefish aren’t as widely available because populations are down.
If you must have salmon, choose wisely. Farmed salmon had previously been considered a no-go, but several companies, including the Monterey Bay-certified Ora King salmon from New Zealand and Chile’s Verlasso, are making changes to the farms so that they don’t have the same environmental effects. Verlasso uses a fully non-GMO diet in the form of an algae-based feed that includes organic corn and soy.
Six years ago, Verlasso Salmon revolutionized farmed salmon by introducing a feed model that utilizes 1 pound of feeder fish to raise 1 pound of salmon, which means there is less food waste and environmental impact. They also keep the fish antibiotic- and hormone-free by providing larger, environmentally sound enclosures in the clean Patagonian waters.
“Yesterday’s solution is likely not the best for today,” says Jennifer Bushman, a strategic consultant and executive producer of “Full Circle: Journey of a Waterman,” a film about saving the oceans through responsible fisheries. The recent breakthroughs with salmon, for instance, “dramatically changed the way in which the NGO (nongovernmental organizations) community viewed how ocean-raised salmon could be farmed sustainably and allowed organizations such as Seafood Watch to recommend ocean-raised salmon.”