What’s Left and What’s For Dinner

By OCinSite At-Large | October 26, 2011 9:56 AM

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By Chad Nelsen

Walk into La Sirena in South Laguna, and you’ll notice that only faint remnants of the word “shrimp” can be seen on the menu board. Why did Scott Cortellessa, the owner of La Sirena Grill, stop selling America’s most popular seafood in his burritos? Because most shrimp are caught by trawling, a particularly devastating type of fishing that incidentally catches and kills other marine life and can also harm endangered sea turtles. Along with the rest of his menu, Scott made a choice to sell only sustainably caught seafood at his restaurants. This growing trend is great news for the world’s oceans that are teetering on the brink of destruction.

Overtaxing the Seas

By most accounts, we are overfishing the world’s oceans. Simply defined, overfishing means catching more fish than the ocean can produce. After decades of attempts to sustainably manage fishing, many highly prized fish populations are in serious decline. It is estimated that about 25 percent of U.S. fish stocks are overfished, which has led to the collapse of some very important fisheries. For example, in the early 1990s, the cod fishery off Canada’s east coast completely collapsed. After 500 years of fishing, a sudden increase in fishing pressure over the last 60 years lead to a dramatic crash in 1992, when cod populations plummeted to 1 percent of their historic levels. The entire fishery has been completely exhausted as a result.

It is estimated that the abundance of large predator fish, including cod, swordfish and tuna, has dropped 90 percent over the last 50 years. This is a clear indication that we are catching fish faster than they can reproduce and grow to their full size.

At our current rates of consumption, the predictions are dire. A recent study by Dr. Boris Worm in Science Magazine predicts that if current trends continue, every seafood species will have collapsed below commercially viable levels by 2048. All that will be left are jellyfish, a species not exactly in demand for its inherent culinary value.

We will only be able to stop this alarming trend in the decline of ocean health if we are willing to make some dramatic changes to the way we treat our oceans. Fortunately, solutions do exist. There are three broad strategies that show promise to sustainable management of our ocean wildlife. One strategy is to move away from single species management of fish towards an ecosystem-based approach where the interaction of species is considered. Another is the establishment of marine protected areas that prohibit fishing altogether and allow species to recover. Third, is changing the fish we eat and using consumer choice to drive demand for sustainable seafood.

Sustainable Seafood

Not all fishing approaches are equal. Some types of fishing are less damaging to the environment than others. For example, bottom trawling that drags large nets across the sea floor to catch fish is a particularly damaging approach that is often compared to the clear cutting of forests because it leaves the seafloor devoid of life, often for decades. Other types of fishing, if well managed, can be done sustainably so that fish populations are maintained over generations.

The idea behind sustainable seafood is to identify and label seafood that is either fished or farmed from sources that can maintain or increase production in the future without jeopardizing the ecosystems from which it was acquired. Like the organic food movement, the sustainable seafood movement is gaining momentum as people become aware of the problems created by overfishing and environmentally destructive fishing methods. 

So how do you make sure you make sure you fish choices are sustainable?

One of the best ways to determine if your choice of fish is sustainable is to use the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch’s guide. Available via their website, smart phone app or pocket guide, the guide rates popular fish that are better for the health of the seas than others.

You can also look for the blue Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo on seafood at the store or in some restaurants. The MSC certification, like organic food labels, is an eco-certification that independently reviews fisheries and certifies sustainable fisheries.

The One World One Ocean campaign, created and run locally by the McGillivray family, is supporting sustainable seafood as one of their primary pillars for saving the world’s ocean. The campaign aims to inspire ocean advocates to pledge to eat only sustainable sea life and will support efforts that strive to support the sustainable seafood movement, including local businesses.

One of the easiest ways to ensure you are eating ocean friendly seafood is to eat at restaurants that only serve sustainable seafood. In Laguna, your choices are currently limited but tasty. Three of the local restaurants that are committed to serving sustainable seafood are La Sirena Grill (both locations), Nirvana Grille and the recently opened Asada.

In 2007, Scott made a bold decision about how he ran his La Sirena establishments. He decided that if he and his family were going to eat organic vegetables and sustainable meat and seafood at home, he should do the same at his business. After months of research and consideration, he began shifting his menu toward sustainable seafood. He eliminated shrimp from most menu options because sustainable shrimp are very hard to find, especially after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. He started serving wild salmon, yellowfin tuna and calamari instead. To do so he had to up his prices, which was a concern because Scott believes that only 10 percent of his customers use sustainability as a primary decision factor. However, Scott’s move towards sustainable seafood was not driven by a business advantage, but instead a desire to do the right thing.

After weathering a brief slowdown in business, things picked up and have been great ever since. Scott made it clear that for all environmental choices, seafood included, it’s never an easy, black-and-white choice but something that requires research and balancing benefits with costs, such as seafood that is sustainably caught but then transported long distances with a high carbon footprint.

Nirvana Grille is another local restaurant that is committed to serving sustainable seafood. Like Scott, Lindsay Smith-Rosales explains that her choices about the types of food they prepare at Nirvana are driven by her family’s personal commitment to sustainability. After years of careful choices, Nirvana made a firm commitment to offer nothing but sustainable fish in the future.

Lindsay’s biggest challenge was finding a suitable alternative to her signature Chilean sea bass, a fish so in demand that its numbers have plummeted. After much research she found black cod to be an equal, if not superior alternative, but it’s so expensive that they really don’t profit on the dish. Lindsay rejects that sustainable seafood is a trend but simply something we all must do. As she says, “If we all do a little bit, the results will make a big difference.”

Into the Future

Unless you like the idea of eating jellyfish tacos, it’s clear that we had better change the ways we have fished the oceans for the last 60 years. Overfishing and habitat destruction have put ocean ecosystems on the brink of collapse, but like so many other environmental issues, the choice is ours to make and can start with you at your next meal. Next time you decide you want seafood, make your choice as if the ocean depends on it—because it does.

What’s your favorite seafood dinner, and how do you feel about sustainability and our seas? Let us know at Facebook.