Farmed hamachi… coming soon to a prep counter near you.
Half the seafood eaten in north America is consumed outside the home, according to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). But the chef serving fish faces a learning curve with his or her clientele. Everybody knows beef, pork and chicken—where it comes from, the basic cuts, how to prepare and eat it. But there are hundreds of different choices of seafood in dozens of major categories, each with its own set of considerations as to taste, preparation and food safety. Add to that education on the importance of sustainable fisheries? Forget it.
Except you can’t. Because without increased attention paid to sustainability, many of the varieties of fish consumers love will disappear or become impossibly expensive. The MSC, through its certifications, is out to prevent that. The blue MSC label stands for leaving enough fish in the ocean, respecting habitats and ensuring people who depend on fishing can maintain their livelihoods.
MSC’s roadmap for educating consumers about sustainable fisheries
At the 2019 Boston Seafood Expo, the MSC presented its latest market research based on a survey of 5500 North American consumers. Sustainability is far down the list of factors in purchasing fish, mentioned by less than 3% of respondents. (Younger consumers age 18-34 are more aware, ranking sustainable sourcing sixth after safe, fresh, healthy for my family, taste and price.) Accordingly, the MSC believes its most motivating message is to “ensure seafood we enjoy now is available for future generations”.
Seafood Expo panelists discuss sustainable aquaculture
I also attended a session where a panel of fishmongers and industry folk discussed the challenges in marketing aquaculture—farmed seafood. Consumers give it a bad rap because of experience with mealy catfish, artificially pink salmon, or shrimp raised with antibiotics that pollute the ocean. But today’s aquaculture, practiced right, is sustainable and traceable (meaning it’s not from a fishery that violates MSC principles) by definition. Consumers think wild-caught fish is healthier when in fact it’s more likely to contain parasites.
The panelists recommended that chefs use more seafood as an amuse bouche—a gateway drug that allows consumers to experience new seafood varieties and preps without paying for them. They also recommended the SmartCatch program of the James Beard Foundation which trains chefs to make sustainable choices and become advocates for sustainable fisheries.
On the floor of the show, I tasted farmed hamachi from a deep-ocean aquaculture operation that is sited in the Bay of Cortez. It’s a product still in development but it’s already cleared its biggest hurdle—the fish, fed a proprietary blend of vegetarian protein ingredients, really does taste like the endangered yellowtail we love in our sushi. And I checked out Hudson Valley Fish Farms—an upstate NY outfit which is raising steelhead trout (“salmon’s tastier cousin”) for chefs and consumers. It may be different from what we’re used to, but there is still fish in our future and that’s a good thing.
