flounder

Maintaining healthy fisheries requires three disciplines: science, management, and the third leg of the stool - enforcement. Marine mammal shootings and smuggling operations, international conspiracies and local fraud, paper trails and money trails: these are the kinds of issues NOAA’s Fish Cops confront every day. From busts where “16 federal agents in Crown Victorias and Ford Expeditions pulled into the parking lot, entered the building in pairs, wearing bulletproof vests and carring Glock pistols” to being part of a “Seafood Task Force that surveyed 103 restaurants and retail groceries and found 74% had some type of labeling violation in their seafood”, Fish Cops are looking to bring the bad guys down. "We found many had crawfish being sold as lobster; farmed salmon being sold as wild salmon; seabream and pollock being substituted for snapper; fluke being substituted for halibut; and imitation abalone, crab and octopus being sold as the real product," said Supervisor Michael Antonovich. NOAA’s Fish Cops have “opened 902 cases in 2012 so far”.

With 91% of all seafood consumed in the US in 2011 coming from outside America, and with traceability virtually impossible in our long-standing opaque seafood supply chain, it is good that attention is being paid to the well-being of both consumers and fishermen. Growing support for the Safety And Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act (HR6200) is a big step in the right direction for traditional American fishing communities and jobs.

Our Nantucket Scallopers have been landing pristine bay and sea scallops almost every day this month, and will continue through until spring. About 50 nautical miles north, long time scallop man Jean Frottier died last week when his 40-foot fishing vessel, the Twin Lights, capsized and sank two miles off Provincetown. Kurt Schmidt, a lobster diver who partnered with Frottier in various ventures over the years, said his friend could have cut the line and saved his vessel, but he believes Frottier was trying to save the traps for the lobsterman. Fishermen are an amazing breed.

As fishing slows down in New England, the fishing is picking up in Beaufort, NC. Jack Cox and Dave Tucker are bottom fishing, while their buddies are Green Sticking for tuna and Pound Netting for flounder. They are landing lots of beautiful fish for this holiday season.

Don’t buy fish from strangers.

Late Friday the Environmental Protection Agency issued a long awaited report declaring that Pebble Mine would be a ‘Big Fish Disaster’ for Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Threatening to build the world’s largest open-pit mine in the world’s largest salmon nursery has tugged at the heart-strings of fish-huggers everywhere. The Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Report declares “mining at this scale would cause the loss of spawning and rearing habitat for multiple species” and “over the life span of a large mine, at least one or more accidents or failures could occur, potentially resulting in immediate, severe impacts on salmon”. Strong words. The report was issued in the face of political pressure from Alaska officials where the mine developers have earmarked $107 million to influence the permitting process.

The FDA also announced that all Korean fresh and frozen mussels, oysters, clams, and scallops, along with any product processed or containing them, should be removed from the US market due to concerns over Noro virus. Marion Nestle wrote this week about pink tuna slime that is commonly used in cheap sushi. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. If you want good fish, know your fisherman.

On the good news side of the ledger, NOAA issued their annual status of the stocks report declaring 86% of US fisheries were not being overfished, and that 6 additional stocks, including Atlantic coast summer flounder and Gulf of Maine haddock, were fully rebuilt. Also this weekend is the official start to the Alaska Salmon Season with the first net opening in Copper River. We will be shipping our first sockeye on Monday to arrive Tuesday. Life is good.

While some famous chefs are controversially saying that a great meal is more important than good intention, some things are a simple matter of right and wrong. If you happen to be in NYC on this glorious Spring Sunday, please join the Sea to Table crew at New Amsterdam Market’s Gathering of the Fisheries to discuss protecting salmon up in Bristol Bay. “This is not about being anti-mining. This is about recognizing that some places are not appropriate for these sorts of industrial activities” says our friend Elizabeth Dubovsky of Save Bristol Bay. Stand up for what’s right.

Sun was shining brightly in beautiful Beaufort, NC this week, and I was lucky enough to spend a day with Jack Cox and other fishermen there. Jack is a member of the South Atlantic Management Council and is most concerned with an inability to implement the catch-shares programs that have been benefitting traditional fishing communities around the nation. Still operating under the old “derby” style system, the Carolina grouper/snapper complex is closed to fishing until May 1. “I can’t make enough money to pay for gas keeping only trigger and amber” said F/V Sea Mint Captain James Holden, whose Lumbee ancestors have fished these waters for centuries. “I won’t even go back out until May”. Until then Captain Mike Santos of the F/V Iron Maiden will land summer flounder, and we will see a steady supply of sword and tuna from two boats that will head to their Montauk, NY summer home by June.

On our way home we visited the Raleigh/Durham area, home to a vibrant, growing food scene. We met a great group of chefs at Lantern Restaurant in Chapel Hill, where chef Andrea Reusing put her magic touch on some wild Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and some big wild Florida Gulf white shrimp. An impressive group in an impressive place enjoyed some impressive seafood.

Up north in the Gulf of Maine there is renewed concern for the health of Atlantic cod populations. A step in the right direction happened this week when Whole Foods committed to stop selling all “red-listed” fish by Earth Day 2012, a year ahead of schedule.

Just a few years back the Chesapeake blue crab fishery was in trouble, but strict management has lead it back to where they are now seeking MSC certification. Blue crab season opens today, and when you taste Maryland blue crab in comparison with the Asian product that has flooded the market, it makes you doubly glad that it will be around for our grandkids.

Down in Destin, FL, Chatham Morgan reports that in addition to the steady tuna, snapper, and grouper landing there, mullet, mackerel, pompano, cobia and sheepshead are now being caught within a mile of the beach. These delicious, under-utilized, under-appreciated species, next day from the dock, are a true chef’s delight. Your diners deserve them.

Jack mackerel, rich in oily protein, is manna to a hungry planet, a staple in Africa. Much of it is reduced to feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than 11 pounds of jack mackerel to raise a single pound of farmed salmon. Stocks have dropped from an estimated 30 million metric tons to less than a tenth of that in 20 years. The world’s largest industrial trawlers, after depleting other oceans, now head south toward the edge of Antarctica to compete for what is left.

Rising wealth in Asia and fishing subsidies are among factors driving overexploitation of the world's fish resources according to U.N. marine experts. Oceanographer Daniel Pauly sees jack mackerel in the southern Pacific as an alarming indicator. “This is the last of the buffaloes,” he said. “When they’re gone, everything will be gone.”

Delegates from at least 20 countries will gather this week in Santiago, Chile for an annual meeting to seek ways to curb the plunder. Dr. Pauly thinks this global trend will not change unless a major power — the European Union or the United States — takes firm action. “Somebody has to take the high ground,” he said, “and others will follow.”

Beaufort, NC is one of the finalists in Budget Travel’s contest to select the coolest small town in America. One of Beaufort’s main assets are the boats that fish the waters off Cape Hatteras, and our friend Jack Cox has been unloading vermillion snapper, amberjack and triggerfish from the F/V Seamint and F/V Emily’s Weight, as well as wahoo, yellowfin tuna, and mahi-mahi from the F/V Provider2. The F/V Iron Maiden has been unloading Summer Flounder, but availability has been rough with bottom closures for US Navy training in a lot of the old flounder honey holes. Jack writes “Weather has been great for us. Winter has not reared its head yet and we are hoping we go straight into spring and keep catching it up.” I know what town I’m voting for.

Catch 35’s Eddie Sweeney has taken the plunge and is now serving discerning Chicagoland diners pristine Florida Wild Shrimp. We are shipping these frozen-at-sea critters IQF, FedEx Next Day Ground, throughout the Northeast and Midwest at a $2/lb cost savings. This is a great way to support Gulf fishing communities, and once you have tasted the difference, you will appreciate having your shrimp and eating it too.

NOAA status of stocks report shows the clear and positive impact of scientific fishery management and is upbeat about the future. The stock of both Atlantic Pollock and Haddock have now been rebuilt to fully recovered levels, which is defined as a fish stock that can sustain 100% of its potential maximum sustainable yield. This brings the total of these fully recovered stocks in the US to 21. Fluke, or Summer flounder, are also back, a National Marine Fisheries Service report shows, and the recovery is considered another fisheries management success story.

In the “how smart are fish” category, scientists in Australia have observed Tuskfish on the Great Barrier Reef using tools. "The pictures provide fantastic proof of these intelligent fish at work using tools to access prey that they would otherwise miss out on," said Dr Culum Brown of Macquarie University. Meanwhile scientists in Canada have demonstrated that genetically modified salmon, otherwise known as Frankenfish, are able to breed with Salmon in the wild. Last week 21 members of Congress signed a letter to the FDA warning the agency not to dismiss the clear congressional opinion opposing approval of genetically modified salmon. I, for one, am uncomfortable with the idea of genetically modified salmon in the wild with tools.

Ecocentic’s current Our Heros blog features none other than our hero Sean Dimin of Sea to Table. Click here for a podcast of Peter Hanlon’s interview with Sean.

And please look here to enjoy what may be Alaska Wild Salmon’s biggest fan.