The program that caught my attention 6 years ago that has inspired me to do my part in communicating for Ocean awareness is Ocean Wise founded by the Vancouver Aquarium.  This conservation program was created to “educate and empower consumers about the issues surrounding sustainable seafood”.  According to Ocean Wise, “sustainable seafood can be defined as species that are caught or farmed in a way that ensures the long-term health and stability of that species, as well as the greater marine ecosystem”.

Ocean Wise is a very simple classification program, a species is either sustainable or unsustainable.  Species are recommended if they are:

1. Abundant and resilient to fishing pressures
2. Well managed with a comprehensive management plan based on current research
3. Harvested in a method that ensures limited by-catch on non-target and endangered species
4. Harvested in ways that limit damage to marine or aquatic habitats and negative interactions with other species.

(Ocean Wise)

The Ocean Wise department at Vancouver Aquarium uses internal and external resources to assess the well being of all species, keeping up with all the latest scientific literature released so to relay this information to all participating partners.  Their seafood database is always changing and adapting to ensure appropriate classifications.

Seeing as many of us enjoy our seafood in restaurants, a great place to start protecting ocean habitats and stressed species would be in the kitchens of our favourite local chefs. Ocean wise set out to work directly with interested restaurants and markets to keep them well informed with the latest scientific research thus making ocean friendly alternatives an easy choice for their menus.

Robert Clark Executive Chef of C Restaurant, a man I have had the honour to work with, was one of the first on board with this program and continues to be a spokesperson and representative for Ocean Wise restaurants in the city of Vancouver.  Although Ocean Wise does all of the research, restaurants are required to follow  strict guidelines in order to be granted with the trademarked Ocean Wise logo.  This includes a mandatory training meeting with employees to ensure that staff are well informed about the Ocean Wise program and the sustainable seafood available on their menus to further educate the public they serve each night.  I was one of those people at Raincity Grill, and it was a eye opening lesson, one that continues to inspire me to educate those around me about seafood sustainability.

Today over 100 restaurants in British Columbia are Ocean Wise recommended and the success of the program has  inspired other restaurants across the country to become involved.  However there is much work to be done across the central provinces and the east coast of Canada.

If you own a restaurant and would like more information about the Ocean Wise program please visit www.vanaqua.org or as a consumer you can visit the Vancouver Aquarium’s  website to view their participating restaurants so that you can make wiser dining decisions for your family!

“Sustainable seafood options do exist. And it’s up to all of us to ensure our fisheries are managed in a sustainable fashion so we can maintain the bounty of British Columbia’s seafood industry.”

David Suzuki

In keeping with their mandate “to protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life”, the David Suzuki Foundation has paired up with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Living Oceans Society, the Sierra Club of Canada (B.C. Chapter) to create a new national sustainable seafood awareness program to make safe seafood choices at home much easier.

Their program titled SeaChoice aims to “empower seafood consumers and business stakeholders and users to make choices that best support sustainable fisheries.”  All information about sustainable Canadian Fisheries is available on their website but for iphone users they have gone one step further and created an sustainable seafood application!

A new collaboration with Overwaitea Food Group and SeaChoice is a monumental step toward achieving sustainable standards with grocery retail stores.  Overwaitea Food Group “operates 117 stores across 80 communities in Western Canada, is one of North America’s first grocery retailers to commit to a sustainable seafood policy.” With any luck the remaining grocery retailers will soon follow in their footsteps.

For more information about SeaChoice visit their website www.seachoice.org and download your copy of Canada’s Seafood Guide, a wallet sized guide to help you make easy sustainable decisions for your family!

What are you doing the week of September 19th – 27th?  Join the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up and help remove litter from all Canadian Shorelines!

Now the second largest conservation clean up in the world once began in 1994 with a handful of staff from the Vancouver Aquarium along the coast line of Vancouver!  Today the clean up is sponsored by TD Canada Trust allowing the program to extend nation wide. Now Provinces and Territories across Canada are cleaning up the shorelines of their local lakes and rivers!

The program requires participants to register in their area as the program is intended not only to clean up the shorelines but to also record the debris found and removed.  All data is tallied and forwarded to the International Coastal Clean up for their records.

“Last year, Canadians  removed 328,733 cigarette butts from our shorelines. Last year, Canadians removed 108,231 food wrappers and 62,405 plastic beverage bottles. These numbers rise every year, which means that Canadians still use our waterways for dumping grounds.”

For more information about this great cause, to register or to organize a clean up in your area please visit: www.vanaqua.org If a clean up is not organized in your community, find an area on your own and help contribute to cleaner waterways.

See you there!

It was bound to happen…we saw it coming…but the numbers are still shocking.  British Columbia’s treasured Sockeye did not return in their expected numbers this year, in fact over 9 million failed to return to the Fraser River.  They aren’t late, they aren’t lost, they just didn’t make it.   It is finally time to address Canada’s troubled salmon industry and do what we can to protect their survival before we loose them forever.

A document prepared by Stuart Nelson, Nelson Bros Fisheries Ltd, for the BC Seafood Alliance back in 2006 reviewed the glorious past of the BC Salmon industry and compared this industry’s success and overall impact on the fishery today.  As early as the late 1980’s, values for pink and chum salmon began to decline putting more pressure on the Sockeye catches. By the 1990’s, “changing ocean conditions resulted in dramatically lower harvest levels for pink and chum salmon in the north and central coasts. Lower volumes of pink and chum, coupled with lower per-pound values, made reliance on Fraser sockeye even more acute.”

In 1994 the sockeye industry peaked, with a poor Alaskan catch that season, BC sockeye was in high demand and resulted in an enormous economic return.   A  “10-million piece catch of Fraser sockeye with an ex-vessel value of more than $150 million, and a wholesale value exceeding $250 million.”  The over reliance on this fishery would soon take it’s toll and it did.  The years after 1994 showed a steady decline of salmon numbers, fleets and related fisheries.

Period     Fraser Run Size     Escapement     Cdn Comm. Catch
1990-97     13,314,405          4,514,305          7,046,191
1998-05    7,468,473             5,843,335            874,413

(courtesy of Nelson Bros Fisheries Ltd)

So…four years later, 2009, only 1 out of ten sockeye made their long return to the Mighty Fraser River.  An expected 10 million were meant to return but less than 1 million actually made it.  So what has lead to this massive drop in numbers??  Over fishing?  Sea lice?  Climate change? Weak research models and calculations?

Possibly all of the above.  According to Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, “the mathematical models DFO uses to predict salmon returns are notoriously unreliable.”  Better research and development must be implemented to ensure realistic results in order to help solve these critical issues impacting our salmon.

Fish farms are also taking some heat for the poor salmon return as sea lice produced by such farms has long been a suspect in depleted salmon runs.  When salmon are young and returning to the ocean they do pass under such farms and have been documented to be affected by such salmon farming lice.

However climate change is also a serious threat to our salmon.  The ocean’s temperature is rising and so has the Fraser River.  According to Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser to the Sto: lo Tribal Council, “the Fraser River is warming rapidly. The river is currently at 21.9 degrees. Between 20 and 24, spawning success quickly falls off, and above 24, many fish die in the river, as warm water robs salmon of energy and increases their susceptibility to disease.” (The Globe and Mail)

It is clear that all BC Salmon is facing a crisis, one that must be addressed quickly with better research, commitment, and most of all protection.

Please visit Watershed Watch Salmon Society for new and up to date information concerning British Columbia Salmon.

Maybe now is not the right time to choose salmon for dinner!

I decided to take on a mission this year and support a cause that truly inspires me, one that I believe can make a huge difference for the future.  Sustainable Seafood.

I’m taking it one step further though, I am choosing not to eat seafood for one year so that I can make a statement for sustainable seafood.  I work in the food and beverage industry and my not eating seafood is bound to raise several eye brows, that of course is exactly what I want.

I want to start a conversation about our oceans and their future.  Ocean Wise TM estimates that “over 90% of all predatory fish are already gone from the world’s oceans.”  These numbers are over whelming but indeed a fact!  Over 50% of the world’s oxygen comes from our oceans and with devastating extinction and habitat destruction it is very likely that we will witness the entire collapse of the World’s oceans by 2048!  What happens to us when our oceans die???

It may already be too late to save many marine species, but I’m willing to try.  Refraining from seafood will allow me to spark conversations with people and will provide a window for me to educate the public on a subject that is in the shadow of Green Living and  Global warming.

It will be interesting to write about the response that I get from my guests in the restaurant, my family, my friends and my colleagues.  I expect many to completely dismiss what I say entirely.  I only hope that I can reach those who do believe in this cause and  create a buzz on the Internet, through you!

Please pass on this blog to your friends and family, make comments,  support me, berate me, whatever you feel, just be a part of this important conversation and help people choose sustainable seafood!

Thanks!!

Jennie

There has been a negative buzz surrounding the shrimp/prawn industry for quite sometime now, but do you understand why?

Shrimp/prawns are the most valued seafood world wide.  Their demand creates employment through fishing and farming across the globe with many third world economies profiting from their existence.  The more we choose shrimp cocktail and surf and turf, the more unsustainable their species and surrounding environment becomes.

According to The Monterey Bay Aquarium, “(shrimp) trawling accidentally catches and kills more than 1.8 million tons of marine life each year, including turtles, sharks and other animals, accounting for more than 25% of the world’s wasted catch…Shrimp trawling has the highest bycatch of any commercial fishery – for every pound of shrimp hauled in, three to 15 pounds of unwanted animals die in the process.”

Trawling isn’t the only issue regarding the shrimp industry.  One of North America’s greatest desires is for the Tiger prawn, Black tiger shrimp and Ebi.  Tropical shrimp and prawn farming was designed to accommodate our demand by clearing hundreds of thousands of hectares of mangrove forests.  Mangrove forests are an essential lifeline for shorelines providing nurseries, shelter and breeding places for fish and other marine life.  They also help to preserve water quality, control flooding for communities and protect shorelines from erosion.

According to www.mangroveactionproject.org “We have already lost an estimated 1 million hectares of important coastal wetlands, including mangroves, in order to make room for the artificial shrimp ponds of this boom and bust industry…Approximately 250,000 of those farmed hectares now lie abandoned because of disease and pollution.”

The shrimp industry is the most destructive ocean related industry and once again we can stop it by changing the demand for such shrimp, putting pressure on regulation and law.

If you cannot give up your desire for shrimp and prawns please choose wisely!  There are new nets now being used to vastly improve the percentage of bycatch, however it is almost impossible to know which supplier is using these safer nets.

If you must eat shrimp,  choose wisely!  Look for the BC spotted prawn, the Coon stripe prawn, the Whiteleg shrimp, the Northern pink shimp (trapped only) or the Oregon pink shrimp.  These are the most environmentally sound wild-caught and farmed species that are well managed and are not caught via trawling.

I felt compelled today to talk a bit about this fantastic organization, one that I am thrilled to share with everyone as they are making real strides toward achieving change for our oceans. Their slogan “Start a sea change” says it all! This organization strives to keep the public informed about upcoming votes, bills and laws that are being discussed and passed which concern the welfare of our oceans. Knowledge is obviously a crucial step in our efforts to demand change and Ocean Conservancy is attempting just that.

We have seen the power of the people work first hand throughout last years American Presidential elections as well with our current demand for greener products and cleaner transportation so clearly following these same paths can indeed produce similar results.
Their website www.oceanconservancy.org provides the latest information on current issues that are affecting the oceans and marine life, but better yet, they also provide visitors with ways in which they can make a difference. Ocean Conservancy provides pre-written petitions and letters which outline the concern at hand and what should be done to fix it, a voice for the ocean. Visitors need only to type their name and email address and click send and the letter of concern is sent to the appropriate senator or council member.

Currently Ocean Conservancy is urging members to sign a petition against the ” the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s fish farming program that sets a dangerous precedent for the nation and puts Gulf ecosystems at risk…the Gulf Council passed a plan to develop the first-ever regional permitting system for open-ocean aquaculture (also known as offshore fish farming).”  We understand that fish farming may be the answer to sustaining the fishing industry but there is much lack in research in determining the long term damage that might occur because of it.  Shrimp and prawn farming is an excellent example of that.  Show your support for sustainable fish farming standards by signing their petition.

Visit their take action page to learn more about the many ways you can take action at home and stay up to date with their efforts by joining their mailing list so that you are always in the know about potentially harmful decisions being made without our consent.  As a public I believe that it is more important then ever to actively participate in these global decisions as our oceans may not have the luxury of much more time.

Thank you Ocean Conservancy for all of your ocean efforts!

"Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences."
Finally a documentary has been released to help combat the ever looming disaster that is over-fishing! "The End of the Line" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah on January 15-25, 2009. The film explores the unfortunate story of Newfoundland and the decimation of the World’s largest cod populations which took place in the early 90’s…approximately 17 years ago! Obviously the Newfoundland cod tragedy did not have an effect on the countless global fishing industries but it has grabbed the attention of many marine biologists, scientists, conservationists and of course worried citizens.
According to the film "Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048." A frightening prediction and a likely result if change does not occur immediately.
This film is a must see and supports my theory of taking responsibility for our choices at home. It is up to the consumer to change the way we look at seafood and demand sustainable products for our future, otherwise global marine extinction is a certainty.
Please visit www.theendoftheline.com for more information and to find viewings in your area.

A movie that will surely move you. This is an excellent documentary on the unfortunate reality of our endangered shark population. This movie inspired me to be another voice in the cause for protection, awareness and support for our oceans and the life that inhabits them.
Sharkwater is available in DVD and is a must see! The message conveyed is undeniable and heartbreaking!

Ocean Conservancy is an excellent website dedicated to protecting our oceans through education and awareness.  They provide information for their visitors on ocean related government policy, fishing regulation, retailer and consumer sustainability.

In their effort to fulfill their mission they have created a fantastic online game to help educate visitors while raising money to support their cause.  Play “Go Fish” and Ocean Conservancy will donate $1 for every game played to help make over fishing a thing of the past!

Share this link with everyone you know, a great way to learn and conserve!