Great News for Local Fish & Fishermen

smseafoodIndustry News, Sustainability

Some Very good news from the hard working team at Seafood Watch has been buzzing in the news all week!  They recently announced that all groundfish caught in California, Oregon and Washington are either now ranked a Seafood Watch “Good Alternative” or “Best Choice”. This reflects a continuing pattern of improvement for U.S.-managed fisheries.

Factors contributing to fishery improvements and recommendation upgrades include

  1. Reductions in the catch of overfished species,
  2. Additional species stock assessments, and
  3. Area closures to protect vulnerable habitat

According to Seafood Watch, The new assessments also factor in other other fishery management efforts, including quotas that better take uncertainty into account and the implementation of catch shares, which contributed to species upgrades.

Here are a few exciting highlights that pertain directly to our inventory:

  • Major flatfish species – including Dover sole and Petrale sole have been upgraded from “Good Alternative” to “Best Choice”
  • Sablefish from California, Washington and Oregon are either a best choice or a good alternative depending on how they were harvested
  • All trawl- and longline-caught rockfish have been upgraded from “Avoid” to either “Good Alternative” or “Best Choice”

We think your customers will be as excited about this good news as we are all – please let us know how we can help you convey this (or any) sustainability message.

They may have also seen this piece in the Los Angeles Times (that’s the F/V Southbay in the picture – we buy fish from that vessel from our dock in Morro Bay)!  Make sure you have some of these species on your menu, and get your front of the house team up to speed on the news!