My Foodprint

George Carey’s world record swordfish (842-lbs.) caught in 1936 off Tocopilla, Chile.

The moral quandaries involved in enjoying the bounty of our earth and sea are mounting with every fish reeled in, every cow slaughtered, every chicken cooped. On the Vanity Fair web site is a web exclusive by Charles Clover about the danger our oceans are in and the tricky relationship restaurant owners and eaters are embroiled in. It describes what we already know, that we have over-fished the oceans, and polluted them at the same time. The article delves into the moral complications wrapped up in ordering certain types of fish in restaurants today. It highlights certain species of fish which when seen on menus are red flag fish. Swordfish, blue fin tuna, and Chilean sea bass are a few of the most egregious menu items, and many consumers who are now wise to the state of the ocean do not order them. Or they inquire about the source of the fish. At the same time, many chefs are now removing species that have been identified as over-fished or endangered and are moving toward a sustainable fish movement.

“Among the originals he credits in the sustainable-seafood march are (perhaps surprisingly) Eric Ripert, at Le Bernardin; Michelle Bernstein, who omitted Chilean sea bass from her menu when she was at Azul, in the Mandarin Oriental in Miami, and who now owns Michy’s, in Florida; Rick Bayless, in Chicago; Rick Moonen, in Las Vegas; the “Too Hot Tamales” (Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken), in Los Angeles; and Susan Spicer, in New Orleans. Among the young generation he cites are chefs Barton Seaver, at Hook, in Washington, D.C., and Tom Aikens, in London, who has just opened a sustainable-fish-and-chip shop.”

The article makes clear the state of crisis the oceans face, and how humans are inexorably tied to this state. It’s a call for more sustainable means of farming fish, which wold allow fish stocks in the open ocean to rebound. The problem is the lack of unification in this effort. Some countries are up to the task, and as the articles states, Russia has even promulgated a five year ban on beluga caviar farming. Whether or not this ban can be enforced from the top down to the fisherman is the bigger issue. How do governments that want to conserve the ocean’s resources now stop its people from continuing to practice a profession that has been a mainstay of survival for centuries? Perhaps more bans should be placed on larger fishing operations. Limits should be placed on fishing depending on fish populations. It’s all part of a growing consciousness which people have to observe now that we have gotten ourselves into a jam with our own food supplies.

–Nick