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Overfishing spawns catchy idea
In seafood industry, 'sustainability' reels in more enthusiasts
Once a year, Mary Smith and other employees of Chicago's Plitt Co. take a group of chefs to Alaska for a sort of educational field trip.
Plitt, which sells seafood to restaurants and markets such as Whole Foods, works directly with salmon fisheries in the state, and the chefs get to observe how fish are caught in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way. The hands-on lessons from the salmon fishermen on Kodiak Island seem to make concrete the sometimes-abstract idea of sustainability, said Smith, the director of marketing for Plitt. "You can hear all about this thing, but seeing it, you really get it."
Sustainability—fishing only stocks that can be replaced and indefinitely maintained and harvesting fish in a way that does not harm the environment or other species caught as bycatch—is a concept popping up more and more along the seafood chain. It's being discussed by the chefs who cook fish and the companies that harvest and distribute it and the consumers who buy it. It's a topic surfacing on restaurant menus and at seafood counters, in companies' corporate responsibility reports and at Patagonia stores.
Even last year's animated movie "Happy Feet" carried a message about needing to protect the world's oceans from overfishing. And each "Happy Feet" DVD contains a seafood watch guide, produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, showing what types of fish and shellfish are best to eat and what types to avoid.
A movement on the move
The sustainable seafood movement is growing, say environmentalists involved in the issue, but much more needs to be done.
Reports about overfishing and the diminishing number of large fish such as bluefin tuna are sounding alarms. One widely reported study last year by an international group of scientists and economists estimated that the world's seafood supply would be gone by 2048; a report last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to Congress said 20 percent of U.S. marine fish are subject to overfishing and 25 percent are overfished or depleted. Click here to continue for a Full Article
By: Kathryn Masterson - Chicago Tribune
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