Ned Bell of Chefs for Oceans thinks sustainable seafood is worth the efforts, and you should too. |
Ned Bell is peddling sustainable
seafood, literally. A sustainable seafood activist and founder of Chefs for Oceans, Chef Bell is biking across Canada to get Canadians more interested and
engaged in sustainable seafood.
Chosen as one of Canadian
Living’s Top 10 Canadian Chefs You Need
to Know About, Chef Bell is the executive chef at the Four Seasons
Vancouver, the first upscale restaurant in Canada to go 100% sustainable for
its seafood, meaning that the fish served at the restaurant is caught or farmed
in a way that ensures the long-term
health and stability of the fish stocks and the greater marine ecosystem.
His journey is in partnership
with Ocean Wise, a conservation program through the Vancouver Aquarium and
SeaChoice a sustainability program affiliated with SeafoodWatch, a well-known
U.S. sustainability program. For a
decade these programs have been working their way across the country creating
partnerships with restaurants and retailers, making it extra easy for consumers
to source sustainable seafood. The programs have yet to reach the East Coast
though, but both offer great online resources and cell phone apps that make it
easier to know what seafood at our local markets is most likely sustainable.
Chef Bell’s goal is to ensure
that sustainable fishing practices become the norm within the next 10 years. Even
at that we’re racing the clock. According to Ocean Wise and SeaChoice, 75% of fisheries (globally) are fully exploited,
overexploited or depleted.
Why you should choose sustainable seafood:
- Overfishing is a significant threat. It’s estimated that we’re down to the last 10per cent of many species and with current fishing practices the fish can’t reproduce quickly enough for stocks to recover. Some common fishing methods have been compared to clear cutting.
- Waste due to bycatch is another challenge to global fish populations. It’s estimated that about 25 percent of fish caught in commercial fisheries is unintended catch so tossed overboard, dead or dying.
- Habitat destruction threatens wild fish stocks as well. Certain fishing and fish farming practices destroy habitats that are necessary for species to spawn and survive.
In order for seafood to be certified sustainable it must meet the following criteria:
- Seafood must be from stocks that are abundant, from fisheries that are well-managed and use fishing practices that ensure limited bycatch. For farmed fish to be certified the farming practices must limit damage to marine or aquatic habitats and other species.
Chef Bell started his journey on
July 1st in NL and on Thursday, July 17th he’ll be at the
Saint John Ale House for an afternoon fundraiser and food fest.
Visit www.seachoice.org or www.oceanwise.ca/ for easy-to search listings of sustainable
seafood choices. To follow Ned on his cross-country trek visit http://chefsforoceans.com/
Go one step further and help the
Atlantic Right Whale too. Irving Oil has an initiative in partnership with the New
England Aquarium. If you visit Irving Oil’s Facebook page and click on “Help Right Whales” Irving Oil will donate $5 to Right Whale research, conservation
and education initiatives at the Aquarium.
2 comments:
Great Post Bridget. Thanks, You might want to check out Just Seafood in Rothesay. They're carrying Arctic Char from a farm in central NB which I believe is what you are referring to here. They're a couple of doors down from the CIBC.
I have spent a lot of the time in different blogs but this is really a unique blog for me.
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