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- Alaska Culinary Association Adopts Sustainable Seafood Policy
Alaska Culinary Association Adopts Sustainable Seafood Policy
- By Collaborative INSIGHTS
- Published 7 March 2008
- Agency/Organizational News
The Alaska Culinary Association (ACA) is a professional organization of cooks, chefs, restaurant managers/owners, caterers, culinary educators and food purveyors. ACA members work in the restaurant and hospitality industry, University of Alaska, vocational and technical schools, catering industry and food wholesalers throughout Alaska. It represents over 60 professionals in the State. Our purpose is to promote the culinary arts by providing and promoting educational opportunities for members of the organization and members of the interested public. Also, the ACA sponsors informational programs, publications and other educational events. This position statement is part of our educational purpose.
Background on Marine Conservation Issues
Fish stocks, invertebrates utilized for seafood and marine environs that are important to millions of people are in jeopardy throughout the world. Scientists, management agencies, and nongovernmental organizations are concerned for the sustainability of fish populations, the fishing industry and marine environments around the world. Some of the important issues that need to be considered include overfishing, bycatch, habitat damage and aquaculture.
Overfishing jeopardizes the dietary essentials of many people throughout the world who rely on fish as their primary source of nonvegetable protein. In the recent past, ocean fishermen significantly increased their catch by increasing the number of boats and using more effective fishing gear. According to a United Nations (FAO) report1, over 70% of world fish stocks are fully exploited or overfished and catches are declining2. Overfishing means catching fish faster than they can reproduce. Overfishing pushes the fish population lower and lower, until fish are so few that fishermen can’t make a living anymore. Many fisheries have already collapsed throwing thousands of people out of work.
Large quantities of fish are wasted and other marine animals die as a result of accidental bycatch. The FAO reports1 that worldwide, fisheries throw away 25% of their catch as unwanted or unintentional bycatch. Tons of fish and other marine animals are discarded because they’re not the kind the fishermen wanted to catch and they have no market value, or there may be no room on the boat to bring them to shore. Or the bycatch may be a marketable species, but too small to sell, or the operators lack the proper permits to land them. Sharks, swordfish and red snapper are just a few of the fish stocks harmed by accidental catch.
Bycatch also plays an important role in marine food webs. It often takes young fish that could rebuild depleted populations if they were allowed to mature and breed. Moreover, bycatch may unintentionally reduce an important food source for other species such as tuna, salmon, swordfish, dolphins, sea lions and other ocean wildlife.
Coastal waters including adjacent estuarine areas, so essential for fish, shellfish and other marine life are being degraded or lost at an accelerating rate. Sewage, runoff including oil pollution, agricultural fertilizers and human developments are among the more salient problems. Certain fishing methods such as bottom trawling and dredging damage the ocean floor and surrounding vegetation and significantly degrade valuable marine environs where fish and marine animals feed, rest and breed. Also, coastal wetlands and adjacent freshwater streams are essential breeding and rearing habitat for numerous fish and shellfish species.
Around the world, people are consuming more seafood than ever before. Demand is increasing due to growing human populations, and because health-conscious consumers are choosing seafood more often. To help supply the global demand for fish and seafood, people are raising fish, shrimp and oysters like farmers raise cattle and chickens. Presently nearly one-third of our seafood comes from farms. While farmed fish and shellfish can supplement our seafood supply, they can’t replace the variety and abundance of wild seafood.
In Alaska wild salmon are an abundant renewable resource. Fisheries managers evaluated salmon farming in Alaska and concluded the dangers to wild fish stocks were too great4. The farming of finfish in Alaska was banned in 1990 to protect wild stocks from the threats of disease and pollution as well as the possibility of escaped farm fish displacing or breeding with wild fish.
Farmed fish are raised in net pens where thousands of fish, concentrated in a small area, produce tons of feces, polluting the water. Diseases can spread from fish in the crowded pens to wild fish. Antibiotics and other drugs used to control those diseases leak out into the marine environment, creating drug-resistant disease organisms. And if farmed fish escape their pens, they can take over habitat from wild fish in the area. Laws to protect the environment around coastal fish farms are unable to mitigate the short or long-term risks these operations pose to wild fish stocks.
Shrimp farming, as it is practiced in some areas, is detrimental to important estuarine areas. Coastal mangrove forests shelter wild fish, provide valuable shrimp habitat, and filter water as well as protecting coastal areas from storm waves. Many mangrove forests have been cut down and replaced with farms that supply shrimp to commercial markets worldwide. These shrimp farms are not sustainable because waste products quickly build-up in the shrimp ponds forcing farmers to relocate to new areas. And typically there are no efforts to reclaim or mitigate the damage to important mangrove forests and estuarine areas caused by the farming operations.
Alaska Culinary Association’s Recommendations for Long-Term Sustainability of Marine Resources and Environs
The ACA supports the work of marine conservation organizations and fisheries management agencies engaged in ensuring healthy oceans and providing sustainable fisheries and seafood stocks in Alaska and elsewhere in the world. Well-managed and sustainable fisheries protect fish stocks and the environments in which they live while allowing responsible use of the fish and seafood species that come from it. Well-managed fisheries also ensure that there is a future for the fishing industry and all those who depend upon the fisheries for their economic livelihoods. With good information, culinary professionals can play a powerful role in supporting sustainable fisheries and clean aquaculture operations as well as responding to rising consumer concerns. Responsible actions today can ensure the seafood industry is environmentally and economically sustainable in the future.
Recommendation - The ACA recommends menu choices that include Alaskan salmon, halibut, rockfish, cod and other fish and seafood species that are science-based, sustainably managed.
Professional culinarians should avoid using fish and seafood products from over-exploited stocks, taken by methods that promote wasteful by-catch and/or with major environmental impacts. There are a wide variety of environmentally responsible fish and seafood products available as alternatives to species with major environmental problems.
For most of the unsustainable seafood products, alternatives exist that are similar in taste and texture, often lower in cost, and with greater supply stability. For example, Atlantic cod, which is depleted, can be replaced in many recipes by other mild white fish such as catfish or tilapia. Sablefish offers a comparable flaky white meat and high oil content as an alternative to Chilean sea bass.
As professionals we should know: 1) where our seafood is from; 2) if it is wild-caught or farmed; and, 3) how the fish is caught. Information on the best/poorest choices including detailed information is easily located online (www.seafoodwatch.org) (www.seafoodchoices.com).
Recommendation – The ACA supports the conservation and science-based management of marine and estuarine environs important to fish, marine invertebrates and humans. We encourage the protection of certain critical areas from fishing of any kind.
Fish and shellfish need habitat – places to hide, feed and breed. Wherever possible, we favor commercial fishing methods that minimize habitat damage and spare the seafloor. Long-lining, hook-and-line fishing, nets and trap fishing do much less damage to habitat than bottom trawling or dragging.
Recommendation – The ACA encourages the use of fish and mariculture products that are produced from environmentally compatible and sustainable aquatic farming operations. Further, we urge the use of sustainably managed, wild-caught fish in lieu of farmed fish.
Presently, most oysters on the market and many of the clams and mussels are farm-raised. These species filter tiny plankton out of the water for their food so they need no supplemental feeding and actually may improve water quality. And typically there is little damage to the seafloor when farmed mollusks are harvested. Shrimp farming is more problematic.
The best way to raise shrimp and some species of fish may be inland from the marine coastal environs. Shrimp, tilapia, catfish and trout are successfully raised inland in many areas. All of these species are good alternatives to ocean-farmed shrimp and salmon. Wastes are easier to handle and environmental damage is more easily mitigated by locating farming operations inland away from the coast.
Summary
The ACA recognizes Alaska’s economy and lifestyle depends on environmental quality and productive, well-managed marine resources. While Alaska’s fisheries are the model of science-based sustainable management, this is not the case worldwide. As culinary professionals we are concerned about the important issues of overfishing, by-catch of fish and other species, marine habitat degradation and fish farming. These issues have important social, environmental and economic consequences that require our attention and resolution. Our well-informed choices in the kitchen can lead to creative, long-term solutions.
Adopted by the Alaska Culinary Association Membership on March, 2007.
Citations
1 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 2000. The State of World Fisheries.
2 2 Watson, R., and D. Pauly 2001. Systematic distortions in world fisheries catch trends. Nature: 414, pp. 534-536.
3 Alverson, Dayton L. 1998. Discarding Practices and Unobserved Fishing Mortality in Marine Fisheries: An Update. From a report prepared for the National Marine Fisheries Service, April 29, 1998. Seattle: Sea Grant Washington.
4 Gaudet, D. 2002. Atlantic Salmon, a White Paper. Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Juneau, AK.
Background on Marine Conservation Issues
Fish stocks, invertebrates utilized for seafood and marine environs that are important to millions of people are in jeopardy throughout the world. Scientists, management agencies, and nongovernmental organizations are concerned for the sustainability of fish populations, the fishing industry and marine environments around the world. Some of the important issues that need to be considered include overfishing, bycatch, habitat damage and aquaculture.
Overfishing jeopardizes the dietary essentials of many people throughout the world who rely on fish as their primary source of nonvegetable protein. In the recent past, ocean fishermen significantly increased their catch by increasing the number of boats and using more effective fishing gear. According to a United Nations (FAO) report1, over 70% of world fish stocks are fully exploited or overfished and catches are declining2. Overfishing means catching fish faster than they can reproduce. Overfishing pushes the fish population lower and lower, until fish are so few that fishermen can’t make a living anymore. Many fisheries have already collapsed throwing thousands of people out of work.
Large quantities of fish are wasted and other marine animals die as a result of accidental bycatch. The FAO reports1 that worldwide, fisheries throw away 25% of their catch as unwanted or unintentional bycatch. Tons of fish and other marine animals are discarded because they’re not the kind the fishermen wanted to catch and they have no market value, or there may be no room on the boat to bring them to shore. Or the bycatch may be a marketable species, but too small to sell, or the operators lack the proper permits to land them. Sharks, swordfish and red snapper are just a few of the fish stocks harmed by accidental catch.
Bycatch also plays an important role in marine food webs. It often takes young fish that could rebuild depleted populations if they were allowed to mature and breed. Moreover, bycatch may unintentionally reduce an important food source for other species such as tuna, salmon, swordfish, dolphins, sea lions and other ocean wildlife.
Coastal waters including adjacent estuarine areas, so essential for fish, shellfish and other marine life are being degraded or lost at an accelerating rate. Sewage, runoff including oil pollution, agricultural fertilizers and human developments are among the more salient problems. Certain fishing methods such as bottom trawling and dredging damage the ocean floor and surrounding vegetation and significantly degrade valuable marine environs where fish and marine animals feed, rest and breed. Also, coastal wetlands and adjacent freshwater streams are essential breeding and rearing habitat for numerous fish and shellfish species.
Around the world, people are consuming more seafood than ever before. Demand is increasing due to growing human populations, and because health-conscious consumers are choosing seafood more often. To help supply the global demand for fish and seafood, people are raising fish, shrimp and oysters like farmers raise cattle and chickens. Presently nearly one-third of our seafood comes from farms. While farmed fish and shellfish can supplement our seafood supply, they can’t replace the variety and abundance of wild seafood.
In Alaska wild salmon are an abundant renewable resource. Fisheries managers evaluated salmon farming in Alaska and concluded the dangers to wild fish stocks were too great4. The farming of finfish in Alaska was banned in 1990 to protect wild stocks from the threats of disease and pollution as well as the possibility of escaped farm fish displacing or breeding with wild fish.
Farmed fish are raised in net pens where thousands of fish, concentrated in a small area, produce tons of feces, polluting the water. Diseases can spread from fish in the crowded pens to wild fish. Antibiotics and other drugs used to control those diseases leak out into the marine environment, creating drug-resistant disease organisms. And if farmed fish escape their pens, they can take over habitat from wild fish in the area. Laws to protect the environment around coastal fish farms are unable to mitigate the short or long-term risks these operations pose to wild fish stocks.
Shrimp farming, as it is practiced in some areas, is detrimental to important estuarine areas. Coastal mangrove forests shelter wild fish, provide valuable shrimp habitat, and filter water as well as protecting coastal areas from storm waves. Many mangrove forests have been cut down and replaced with farms that supply shrimp to commercial markets worldwide. These shrimp farms are not sustainable because waste products quickly build-up in the shrimp ponds forcing farmers to relocate to new areas. And typically there are no efforts to reclaim or mitigate the damage to important mangrove forests and estuarine areas caused by the farming operations.
Alaska Culinary Association’s Recommendations for Long-Term Sustainability of Marine Resources and Environs
The ACA supports the work of marine conservation organizations and fisheries management agencies engaged in ensuring healthy oceans and providing sustainable fisheries and seafood stocks in Alaska and elsewhere in the world. Well-managed and sustainable fisheries protect fish stocks and the environments in which they live while allowing responsible use of the fish and seafood species that come from it. Well-managed fisheries also ensure that there is a future for the fishing industry and all those who depend upon the fisheries for their economic livelihoods. With good information, culinary professionals can play a powerful role in supporting sustainable fisheries and clean aquaculture operations as well as responding to rising consumer concerns. Responsible actions today can ensure the seafood industry is environmentally and economically sustainable in the future.
Recommendation - The ACA recommends menu choices that include Alaskan salmon, halibut, rockfish, cod and other fish and seafood species that are science-based, sustainably managed.
Professional culinarians should avoid using fish and seafood products from over-exploited stocks, taken by methods that promote wasteful by-catch and/or with major environmental impacts. There are a wide variety of environmentally responsible fish and seafood products available as alternatives to species with major environmental problems.
For most of the unsustainable seafood products, alternatives exist that are similar in taste and texture, often lower in cost, and with greater supply stability. For example, Atlantic cod, which is depleted, can be replaced in many recipes by other mild white fish such as catfish or tilapia. Sablefish offers a comparable flaky white meat and high oil content as an alternative to Chilean sea bass.
As professionals we should know: 1) where our seafood is from; 2) if it is wild-caught or farmed; and, 3) how the fish is caught. Information on the best/poorest choices including detailed information is easily located online (www.seafoodwatch.org) (www.seafoodchoices.com).
Recommendation – The ACA supports the conservation and science-based management of marine and estuarine environs important to fish, marine invertebrates and humans. We encourage the protection of certain critical areas from fishing of any kind.
Fish and shellfish need habitat – places to hide, feed and breed. Wherever possible, we favor commercial fishing methods that minimize habitat damage and spare the seafloor. Long-lining, hook-and-line fishing, nets and trap fishing do much less damage to habitat than bottom trawling or dragging.
Recommendation – The ACA encourages the use of fish and mariculture products that are produced from environmentally compatible and sustainable aquatic farming operations. Further, we urge the use of sustainably managed, wild-caught fish in lieu of farmed fish.
Presently, most oysters on the market and many of the clams and mussels are farm-raised. These species filter tiny plankton out of the water for their food so they need no supplemental feeding and actually may improve water quality. And typically there is little damage to the seafloor when farmed mollusks are harvested. Shrimp farming is more problematic.
The best way to raise shrimp and some species of fish may be inland from the marine coastal environs. Shrimp, tilapia, catfish and trout are successfully raised inland in many areas. All of these species are good alternatives to ocean-farmed shrimp and salmon. Wastes are easier to handle and environmental damage is more easily mitigated by locating farming operations inland away from the coast.
Summary
The ACA recognizes Alaska’s economy and lifestyle depends on environmental quality and productive, well-managed marine resources. While Alaska’s fisheries are the model of science-based sustainable management, this is not the case worldwide. As culinary professionals we are concerned about the important issues of overfishing, by-catch of fish and other species, marine habitat degradation and fish farming. These issues have important social, environmental and economic consequences that require our attention and resolution. Our well-informed choices in the kitchen can lead to creative, long-term solutions.
Adopted by the Alaska Culinary Association Membership on March, 2007.
Citations
1 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 2000. The State of World Fisheries.
2 2 Watson, R., and D. Pauly 2001. Systematic distortions in world fisheries catch trends. Nature: 414, pp. 534-536.
3 Alverson, Dayton L. 1998. Discarding Practices and Unobserved Fishing Mortality in Marine Fisheries: An Update. From a report prepared for the National Marine Fisheries Service, April 29, 1998. Seattle: Sea Grant Washington.
4 Gaudet, D. 2002. Atlantic Salmon, a White Paper. Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Juneau, AK.
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