FishChoice Newsletter: June 15, 2011

Dear justin@fishchoice.com,

All too often, those of us who don't commercial fish, lose sight of the effort and risk that goes into harvesting wild seafood. The reality is that fishing is a dangerous business. That was hardly news to Bill Weber of Gulkana Direct, a pioneering Cordova fisherman who has fished Alaska's Copper River flats since he was 12. But Bill's good fortune took a turn for the worse on May 30th when he was crossing a bar and a series of 12-foot breakers rolling in from the Gulf of Alaska smashed his bowpicker to bits and sunk it.  Fortunately, Bill's dad was fishing nearby and managed to pick Bill and his crewman up.  Needless to say, Bill won't be taking orders for his prized salmon for a while. He is hopeful, however, that insurance will cover much of his loss and he plans to be fishing the flats next May when they open up. We wish Bill the best and hope he's back on the water soon.

Warm Regards,
Richard Boot
President
FishChoice.com

New Product Listings on FishChoice.com

Some of the new sustainably rated or certified products posted on FishChoice.com recently include:   

• Black sea bass from Massachusetts 
• Silver hake from Nova Scotia 
• Yellowfin tuna from Hawaii 
• White shrimp from Texas  

Please support FishChoice and mention us to the suppliers when you contact them regarding their product listings on the website.

Market Alert- Oysters, Jonah Crab     

Oysters    

Last spring it was the oil spill. This spring it was all that muddy water. Louisiana's oyster industry can't seem to catch a break. Things are so dire down on the bayou that for the first time since 1982, when oyster production from the Chesapeake Bay began its steep decline, Louisiana is no longer the top oyster-producing state in the U.S. Last year's oil spill sliced Louisiana's oyster harvest in half, from about 15 million pounds of shucked meats to less than 8 million pounds. Washington state, which produces about 9 million pounds of oyster meats, is now the top producer, a position it could hold for some time the way things are going down south. (Continued...)  

• Conservation Notes 
• Buying Tips  

Jonah Crab     

Fishing for this increasingly popular crab, which is sometimes dubbed the Atlantic Dungeness, was slower than normal in June, a month that typically produces landings of about 800,000 pounds. After running through his 1,800 pots, one Massachusetts fishermen reportedly returned with just 700 pounds of crab.  As is the case with most crab, Jonah prices are at record highs. (Continued...)

• Conservation Notes 
• Buying Tips 

Oysters Grow Better in Baja's Biosphere              

The El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve,  Mexico's largest environmentally protected area, is a remote  ecological marvel that bisects Baja California, midway down the arid 800-mile long peninsula. On the Pacific side, where gray whales migrate each winter to calve in the protected lagoons, the California current keeps the clear waters comfortably cool.  A perfect place to grow oysters, figured Pedro Noriega, a Mexican aquaculturist and Philippe Danigo, whose family had been growing oysters on France's Brittany coast for three generations.

Philippe had come to Mexico to work in the shrimp-farming industry on the other side of the Gulf of California on the Sinaloa coast. While there, he met Pedro, formerly a fish farmer, who sported a Masters in Aquaculture from the University of Stirling in the U.K.   Forget fish and shrimp, they eventually decided, too many potential problems like diseases and wildly fluctuating markets, not to mention the fact that they were capital intensive undertakings. Why not return to the family roots and engage in a more sustainable aquaculture venture like growing Pacific oysters, the same species the Danigo family farmed in France?

Since the sun was ever present and the water a deep blue, they decided to call their new venture Sol Azul. That was back in 1993. Based on the success of a pilot project, they harvested their first commercial crops in the late 1990s and today Sol Azul is the largest oyster producer in Mexico with an annual production of some 500 metric tons of both Pacific and kumamoto oysters. It hasn't been easy. First, Philippe and Pedro had to convince the local fishing communities that working on an oyster farm was a better way to make a living than trying to scrape by harvesting some severely overfished local species like abalone and scallops. They also had to get the local communities to change the way they lived. (Continued...)

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