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| FishChoice Newsletter: April 6, 2011 |
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Dear Friends and Partners,
Did you know that 42% of the world's wild harvest salmon supply and 80% of the world's high value supply of Chinook, coho and sockeye salmon come from Alaskan waters? Did you also know that the Bristol Bay fisheries in Alaska are currently under threat by the proposed Pebble Mine development? If developed, it is almost certain that the impacts from the mine would severely threaten, if not destroy, the current economic, environmental, and cultural integrity of the Bristol Bay region, and more specifically, the commercial and subsistence wild salmon fisheries in the area.
Last week, Trout Unlimited (TU) organized Save Bristol Bay Week in DC. This event included more than 20 D.C. area restaurants highlighting Bristol Bay salmon on their menus, a media event, and a National Press conference call. If you want to get involved you can take action and if you want to know more, the award-winning film Red Gold encapsulates how the mine will cause irreversible changes to one of the most valuable resources to not only the seafood industry, but to the planet. We would also like to recognize the work that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is doing in trying to stop the development of Pebble Mine.
Please join us in showing your support to save Bristol Bay by supporting TU and NRDC's efforts!
Cheers,
Justin Boevers
Outreach & Development Manager
FishChoice.com
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 New Product Listings on FishChoice.com |
Some of the new sustainably rated or certified products posted on FishChoice.com recently include:
Please support FishChoice and mention us to the suppliers when you contact them regarding their product listings on the website.
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| Market Alert - American Lobster & Haddock |
American Lobster
After a rough winter that one dealer described as a "waste of time" because of lost sales due to a barrage of snow storms, the lobster industry is looking forward to the early May opening in Canada's spring Gulf of St. Lawrence fishery. The Canadian inshore season lasts into early June, when it gets shut down when lobsters begin to molt. Heavy landings from the inshore Canadian fishery drive prices down from their lofty winter levels, which this year saw fishermen getting more than $5/lb. for their catch. After June, prices typically rise, as demand from summer resorts in the Northeast kicks in. At that time of year, the primary source of lobsters comes from Maine. Unlike Canada, where the lobster fishery is managed to minimize the catch of softshell lobster, the U.S. lobster fishery is a year round affair and in the summer the catch consists of a high percentage of softshell lobsters (while softshells are fine for the local markets, they are weak and can't be shipped by airfreight). More...
Haddock
Better weather and the new fishing year, which starts May 1 off New England, should see improved supplies of this great-tasting New England staple. And there are lots of haddock to catch, as stocks have rebounded to historically high levels. The question is how much of the quota can New England fishermen catch? Last year, the haddock catch off New England was almost 9,000 metric tons, the most haddock that's been landed in more than 25 years. The quota, though, was just over 50,000 metric tons, which would have been the highest catch since foreign fleets were booted from U.S. waters in 1977. However, under the complex regulatory framework used to manage the New England groundfish fishery, fishermen are limited to the number of days at sea they can fish. Furthermore, once the quota of another species like cod is caught, the mixed species fishery is shut down. As a result, New England fishermen are hard-pressed to land all the haddock they could. More...
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| Mussel Mud Means Money in Prince Edward |
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 It's hard to think of a more sustainable way to produce seafood than raising blue mussels. You hang a rope in the water in the spring and mussel larvae will attach to it. Anywhere from 16 to 24 months later, you will have a nice plump mussel ready to market. And mussels are good for the water, too. One of the most voracious filter feeders in the ocean, a blue mussel will filter up to 20 gallons of water a day. In the process, they will improve water quality by removing a lot of nitrogen from the water. And too much nitrogen in the water, much of which comes from runoff from land-based agriculture, can lead to a host of undesirable consequences such as low oxygen levels, which can be lethal to fish and shellfish.
But David Cole, a mussel farmer and owner of Prince Edward Aqua Farms, one of the largest mussel processors on Canada's Prince Edward Island, has come up with a way to make mussel farming even more sustainable. It's a matter of the mud. When they're hanging out on their ropes, mussels get coated in silt, which has to be washed off during processing. While the mud is a mess, what's worse is that it contains tunicates, or sea squirts, an invasive little filter feeder that latches on to the mussel and competes with the mussel for nutrients. More...
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Will you be attending the National Restaurant Association Show?
FishChoice will be exhibiting at booth 373, and we always enjoy meeting those who are using our website, please contact us to let us know you'll be there.
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