What Seafood Should Not be Served?

What Seafood Should Not be Served?

Marlin (all)

Monkfish

Canadian Snow Crab

Imported Shrimp (all)

Wild Atlantic Sturgeon

Wild-caught Beluga, Osetra and Sevruga Sturgeon Caviar (Caspian Sea)

West Coast Rockfish (all from lower 48)

Atlantic Sharks (all)

Your Seafood Choices are Important

If you would like to know which species of seafood to avoid serving because their populations are in trouble (such as "Chilean Seabass," Bluefin Tuna and Atlantic Halibut) or which are dangerous to your health ("farm-raised" salmon and imported shrimp) but also which marine species can be served with confidence because they are unaffected by contaminants and are being managed sustainably, you can do so using Seafood Guides developed by the Blue Ocean Institute ( http://www.blueocean.org/Seafood/ ) or by the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_regional.aspx). The seafood guides present such information both globally and by region. Environmental Defense provides an excellent listing of fish species containing dangerously high levels of mercury, PAHs, PCBs and dioxin and for which health advisories have been issued. It recommends eating zero meals a month for a number of popular species.

At our recommendation, some of Prime Seafood's chefs are now routinely passing out the Blue Ocean Institute's Seafood Guide to their patrons, demonstrating in so doing that they are both knowledgeable and conscientious.

As an international fisheries biologist with 35 years of experience, I can attest to the accuracy of these assessments. (However, I would also advise not serving any marlin from either the Pacific or the Atlantic or any Atlantic bluefin tuna.) For example, "our" Atlantic bluefin tuna population (now "red-listed" in the Blue Ocean Institute's Seafood Guide), which spawns in the Gulf of Mexico and summers off New England and Nova Scotia, is down to less than 3% of its former (pre-1960) abundance and still declining. However, the Deepwater Horizon oil and gas well blowout may spell our bluefin's demise since it has just finished spawning in the central Gulf and its eggs and larvae will be killed by the toxic petroleum dissolved throughout the water column. Atlantic blue and white marlin are rapidly approaching extinction due to longlining targeting swordfish, bluefin and yellowfin tuna. For more detail on bluefin and the other big fish of the Atlantic, see this section of my other website http://www.BigMarineFish.com/extinction.html )

Did you know that 90% of the biomass of the world's big marine fish (swordfish, tuna, marlin, Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, etc) has been eliminated since 1952 when industrialized commercial fishing began in earnest? Persistent overfishing by commercial interests from over 40 countries is decimating populations of our most valuable marine species - the "lions and tigers of the sea." To see an excellent animation of this worldwide depletion and links to more information on what you can do, click here: http://www.oceanlegacy.org/movie/map_movie.html

A recent scientific study published in Science predicts the collapse of all ocean fisheries by 2048 unless worldwide overfishing is halted and reversed and coastal habitats (e.g., coral reefs, wetlands, estuaries) are protected from continuing degradation and loss. Already, 29% of all ocean fisheries have collapsed and the trend is accelerating.

Could You Club this Baby Seal?

Prime Seafood is also an active participant in an international boycott of Canadian snow crab, which has been led by the Humane Society of the U.S. We will purchase no Canadian snow crab until the annual slaughter of baby seals is ended. Each year more than 300,000 baby harp seals are beaten to death with clubs and/or shot - for their pelts. Some are even skinned while they are still alive! This barbaric hunt is undertaken over the course of just a few days primarily by those Maritime Canadians (from Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia) who land snow crabs during the remainder of the year and for which they derive most of their revenue (the hunt lasts only 3-4 days in different areas). Since the boycott began, many hundreds of restaurants and seafood businesses such as ours have become involved and the export of snow crab to the U.S. has dropped by nearly $300 million. Prime Seafood will continue to enlisted additional restaurants in the boycott. To find out more and join the boycott, contact the Humane Society of the US.