Seafood Situations
Editor’s Note: At times I feel like there is nothing by negative news about our seafood choices.
Send your seafood situations to Neptune911@live.com
Here’s some good news from Monterey Bay Aquarium
Wild Atlantic Salmon!
Separate reports in the media this week confirm large numbers of wild Atlantic salmon unexpectedly returning to rivers on both sides of the Atlantic.
In France, anglers are catching good-sized wild salmon in the Seine River, headed toward Paris. Given that the species is considered endangered throughout Europe, and that the Seine has been notoriously polluted for some time, this is fantastic news.
Bernard Breton, head of France’s national fishing federation, said the return of perhaps 1,000 salmon to the river “has surpassed anything we could have imagined.”
On the other side the Atlantic, reports by the U.S. Geological Survey from New York State document large numbers of young Atlantic salmon in the Salmon River — a tributary of Lake Ontario — for the first time in more than a century. Outdoors writer David Figura of the Syracuse Post-Standard notes that the lake once supported the largest population of Atlantic salmon on the East Coast.
Given the precarious state of wild salmon in most of the rivers where they’re found, this is definitely news worth celebrating.
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How To Shop the Fish Market
The September issue of Sunset Magazine presented an easy to read and understand article How to Shop the Fish Market, by Stepahnie Dean, Elaine Johnson, Amy Machnak and Margo True.
On line http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/recipes-sustainable-fish-00400000052493/ Your Guide to Sustainable Seafood. The 22 Ways With Dungeness Crab will see one of those dishes on our family menu very soon.
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Sushi and Bluefin Tuna
The bluefin tuna fishery, propped up by skyrocketing price tags at sushi bars around the world, is full of corruption and piracy
Extinction is forever and bluefin tuna face the real threat of commercial extinction within the coming decade. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862255,00.html
The total yearly catch of northern bluefin is much higher than what scientists have recommended.
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Mercury Contaminates in Seafood
But the sad news continues.
According to http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2009/08/19/for-fish-no-escape-from-mercury-pollution/
…”the U.S. Geological Survey found mercury in every single fish tested over a seven-year period, in every one of the nearly 300 streams sampled by USGS scientists throughout the United States. No exceptions.
The Environmental Protection Agency considers mercury a neurotoxin; the new study found that one-quarter of the fish sampled had mercury levels in their tissues above the threshold considered safe by the EPA. Main sources of the mercury include mining operations and coal-burning power plants.”
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Artic Fishery Management Plan
Monterey Bay Aquarium:
… there’s barely a region on earth that we haven’t explored and exploited. Except perhaps, for one of the last remaining frontiers, the polar ice-cap of the Arctic. With rising global temperatures, sea ice is thinning and some species are already moving northward. In the not-too-distant future, some of our favorite dinner plate items may be living in the ice-free waters of the Arctic, and not Alaska or California. Should we go seek them there?
No! Says NOAA – the U.S. governing body for our ocean waters. The new Arctic Fishery Management Plan closes about 150,000 square nautical miles, an area larger than California and five times larger than all our national parks combined. The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council already voted unanimously in favor of the plan, which prevents commercial fishing in U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait, including the Chukchi and Beaufort seas; a favorite feeding ground of the gray whales that pass through Monterey Bay each year.
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Categories: Fisheries, Sustainable Seafood
“The Blob” and the Cod of Alaska (Or less cod for fish n’ chips) 
Transparency in Seafood Marketing 
Concerns for Increased Global Fish Consumption 
Neptune 911! 
It’s a shame that our fragile marine ecosystems are abused by mankind. To think species which evolved over millions of years will be wiped out during our short existence is frightening. Even the Crystal Coast fishing here is suffering. I only hope people will wake up and start taking of our planet and the animals on it. Especially the fish!