Fresh seafood is one of our favorite parts of the Northwest's bounty, and we want to do our part to preserve our unique aquatic ecosystems so that fresh salmon, crab, mussels, oysters, tuna and clams flourish for many years to come.
That's why we lauched our Sustainable Seafood Program and implement Seafood Watch, using a simple green, yellow, red color coding system in our Seafood Department to help highlight smarter consumer choices for healthier oceans.
The program formally started four years ago out of a desire to share more information with our customers. "We wanted to do a better job about educating our customers about better or smarter choices for sustainable seafood," our Meat and Seafood Director Alan Hummel says.
Because we build long-term relationships with our seafood suppliers, we're able to buy premium fish directly and pay fishermen premium prices that keep them in business. "By supporting them year in, year out, those people can count on us for an income," Alan says. As we've grown we've continued to expand our buying power, increasing our ability to support our local food economy.
Alan says he's especially proud to provide delicious and sustainable wild-caught salmon instead of farmed salmon. You'll also find Dungeness crab, halibut, Oregon albacore tuna, and wild-caught shrimp, as well as the best of the day's catch, every day, from local fishers like Linda Brand Crab, Local Ocean Seafoods and Reinholdt Fisheries.
By using the Seafood Watch chart to choose more sustainable options, we can help alleviate some of the problems facing our oceans today and help support fishers who practice sustainable fishing. Some of the most pressing issues are overfishing that stretches the oceans' natural limits, bycatch that is caught and wasted, fish farming that crowds fish into confined net pens, and habitat destruction.
1. Overfishing
There are only so many fish in the sea and we’re discovering the limits of the ocean’s bounty. All over the world fish are being caught faster than they can reproduce. Overfished species include Atlantic swordfish, Atlantic bluefin tuna, Chilean seabass, and many types of West Coast ground fish.
2. Bycatch
Many fish and other animals and caught and wasted. Twenty-five percent of seafood is discarded at sea. Bycatch refers to fish or other animals that are accidentally caught and usually thrown back dead or dying. Bycatch can destroy young fish that are crucial to rebuilding depleted populations.
We've seen some improvement. Customer purchasing choices can help change these destructive practices. The tuna boycotts of the late 1980s played a huge role in changing the harvesting methods that killed dolphins being treated as bycatch.
3. Farming
To help meet a steadily increasing global demand, shrimp, salmon and other fish are being raised like cattle in feed lots. Today, almost one-third of our seafood is farmed. The environmental impact of farmed fish depends on many factors, including what species are raised, what they are fed, if they are medicated, and where they are grown.
Many farmed fish should be avoided. Many farmed fish, including almost all farmed salmon, are raised in crowded net pens. When thousands of fish are concentrated in one small area, tons of feces are produced, polluting the water. In crowded pens, disease and infection can quickly spread from one fish to another. Antibiotics and other drugs are used to control those diseases. When farmed fish escape their pens they can take over scarce habitat and compete with wild fish for food. Farmed salmon in particular pose threats to wild salmon stocks.
There are some notable exceptions. Some farmed fish are raised inland where they don't jeopardize the existence of wild fish. Tilapia, for example, is a plant-eating fish that doesn't rely on wild fish for food. Catfish and trout are also other desirable alternatives. And much farmed shellfish is also sustainably raised; farmed oysters, clams and mussels are all good choices.
4. Habitat Destruction
Places for fish to hide, feed and breed are essential to maintain our seafood populations at a sustainable level. Some harvesting methods can be very destructive to seafood habitat. For instance, bottom trawling damages the sea floor by dragging nets with a chain-mesh base through soft sand or mud.
Longlining, hook-and-line fishing, and trap fishing are all fishing methods that spare the seafloor. These methods do much less damage to habitat than bottom trawling or dragging.
Our Commitment to Choice
Some people have asked why we continue to sell species that we know may be threatened. Our goal is to share information with you, our customers, so that you can make a decision about what’s right for you and your family. We do refrain from selling some seafood, including farmed salmon, because these imported fish are having such a devastating economic effect on our coastal communities. Over time, we hope that all of us, voting with our dollars, will help eliminate the need for the red, and even yellow, signs.
Be part of the solution! Vote with your dollars for sustainable seafood.
Thanks to New Leaf Community Markets, Sustainable Fishery Advocates, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Ecotrust for inspiration.
For more information please check out Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch page or contact our Seafood Buyer, Alan Hummel, at alanh@newseasonsmarket.com or 503.292.1987 ext. 120.
