I cannot believe an entire year has gone by already!  Today is Earth day and that means that I have successfully completed my year without eating any seafood.  I have to say that it wasn’t difficult at all, at least for me.

I feel that in accomplishing this I have been able to touch a few more people along the way in my mission to promote healthier oceans, fisheries and sustainable seafood.  For the most part, people actually understood my motives even though they themselves would never attempt to remove seafood from their lives even for a week.  However the conversation about sustainability and the truth about some of their favourite catches was eye opening to many and even though most will still choose to have their Ahi tuna at sushi restaurants I can’t help but feel that I  may at least continue to tug on some heart strings somewhere when those people decide to make such an unsustainable choice.

The point is, it is incredibly easy to make better choices when choosing seafood at a restaurant or at home for your family, the public just needs to be more educated and sustainable choices need to be accessible. As our world becomes more aware of our troubled oceans I truly believe that our selfish, destructive fishing practices of the past will become just that…the past.

So today is Earth Day!  How are you going to contribute?  Go with sustainable seafood.  Sustainable seafood products can ensure a better environment and security for ocean life in our future but only if we choose it.  It’s time we all do…and what better day then to start today?

I can’t believe we are already half way through March!  That means that I am approximately one month away from completing my year without seafood successfully!  April 16th is only 29 days away now, but what comes after the 16th of April for me?

Sustainable seafood choices of course!  I must say that I am so fortunate to live in British Columbia where most of our seafood is in fact sustainable so I absolutely have a wide variety of great seafood choices available to me.  However it will be difficult for me to refrain from my favourite sushi which is tuna.  Luckily British Columbia is also home to the only sustainable tuna left in the ocean which is Albacore Tuna and it is truly delicious, however it is harder to find at sushi bars.

The ironic part of all this is that I am still 33 weeks pregnant, so I can’t have sushi for a while anyway!  I can’t even have crab or any other type of shellfish which is what I miss the most!  Funny, it seems that my year without seafood will be getting an extension after all!

I suppose it began well before April 16th 2009.  In fact somewhere between January of 2004 and 2005.  Although I do not recall the exact date, I will never forget this day.  At the time I was working as a server for a restaurant in Vancouver called Raincity Grill.  Our restaurant was one of two well known restaurants in the city and were operated under the watchful eye of Robert Clark, Executive Chef.

The staff of both C Restaurant and Raincity Grill were requested to meet at C for an educational meeting with the Vancouver Aquarium.    We were there to learn about Ocean Wise, a conservation program created by the Vancouver Aquarium to help educate and build awareness toward sustainable seafood.  Our restaurants were on board with this program choosing only to serve sustainable seafood products.  Of course what good is such a program when you do not have all of the facts.  Our teachers went on to explain why it is so important to promote sustainable fishing and consumption as our Oceans are facing enormous pressures from not only pollution, acidification but also over fishing.

That afternoon we learned some horrible statistics, and suddenly I felt compelled to share my new knowledge with my guests.  I soon found that I was very proud to be working for a company that was doing what they could to help in an industry that is generally focused only on the bottom line.

That was over four years ago, and much has changed in my life since then. I’ve grown up, I am now married, I have done a lot of travelling and yet something was still missing.  For some reason I felt that something was not finished somewhere, a missing passion that I can not access somehow.  And then it happened…

Earth day, April 16th 2009.  I was living in Mexico for the winter where Dorado (or Mahi Mahi) is fished everyday no matter what the size, where prawn boats are out everyday and where tourists pay $200 to deep sea fish only to give their prize away after the thrill was all gone.  My passion suddenly arose and I was finally aware of something that truly matters to me.

I decided that on Earth Day my contribution would be to refrain from eating any seafood for one year.  I created a group on Facebook called “Don’t forget our Oceans” and off I went, trying to spread my message.  I now have 41 members and it has come to a halt.  Probably because groups on facebook are shortly lived attractions and also because I’m not sure how many other people can really not eat seafood for that long.

So I had to adapt.  It’s not about eating seafood, it’s about making better choices and changing demand.  I needed something bigger, something with a better potential to reach more people.  Well…this is it.  An Oceans View was born.  My blog to write, educate and create awareness about sustainability and the welfare of our Oceans.

I hope to give our Oceans a voice in this world by keeping my blog updated with news about conservation, sustainable fishing, related events, anything that will help my cause so that you can be better informed at home.

So that is how it all began, this is the first post of many more to come and I hope you choose to participate with me and share “An Oceans View”.