Sea Notes

Sustainable Seafood: An Interview with Chef Rick Moonen

Rick Moonen is the creator of October's Seafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Recipe: Chicken-fried Catfish with Green Tartar Sauce and Asian Slaw.

In the 1980s, when Rick Moonen was starting out as a chef in New York City, few people thought about how our seafood choices affected the oceans. But year after year, as he worked for some of the city's most prestigious restaurants, Moonen saw the size and quality of the fish he purchased steadily declining.

By 1998, when he was asked to join the "Give Swordfish a Break" campaign, the first large-scale effort to get chefs and consumers involved in fish conservation, he was ready to take action. "I realized that there were some major changes going on," he says. "At the Fulton Fish Market I used to see swordfish that were 200 pounds or more all the time—I used to buy them. But it got to the point where it was more common to find fish that were 100 pounds or less."

He joined the swordfish campaign and went on to become a passionate and vocal advocate for sustainable seafood. Today, at his Las Vegas restaurant, Rick Moonen's rm seafood in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Moonen works hard to spread the word about the Seafood Watch program and encourages his customers to eat a variety of seafood. "If the ocean collapses, so do we," he says. "We've focused too much on a few fish—we put so much pressure on these species that they become endangered. To me, it's all about diversity—don't have tuna three times a week."

Moonen echoes this idea in his award-winning, 2008 cookbook, Fish Without a Doubt: The Cook's Essential Companion. "I wanted to write a book to help people get more comfortable with fish," he says, "and hopefully they'll start having tilapia once in a while, or barramundi; fish other than tuna, salmon and shrimp." This month's featured recipe for "chicken-fried," catfish is a case in point. If catfish isn't available, or isn't to your liking, Moonen recommends substituting any freshwater or fairly lean fish such as trout, tilapia, barramundi, pacific cod or halibut.

When he's not cooking, or writing books, Moonen can often be found encouraging other chefs to learn about sustainability and the Seafood Watch program. In Las Vegas, tens of thousands of pounds of shrimp are consumed each day, so there's a lot of work to be done to bring about change. But Moonen is undeterred.

"There's been more of a mentality shift here recently than I saw over the years in New York City; I'm seeing more chefs who are willing to do something. If we can turn Las Vegas into a more sustainable model, no one has an excuse not to follow suit—I kind of like the challenge."

Sustainable Soils, Sustainable Seas

Each year as part of the Cooking for Solutions celebration at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we host a two-day Sustainable Foods Institute for members of the media, food industry leaders and key figures with nonprofit organizations involved in promoting sustainable seafood and organic agriculture.

This year, the Institute events were extraordinary -- and it's not just us patting ourselves on the back. Those attending tell us the speakers and panelists were compelling, and the conversations they ignited will be echoing for quite a while.

Topics aren't restricted to seafood issues, because there's a direct connection between how we farm on land and the health of aquatic wildlife in lakes and in the ocean.

We had great media in attendance and on panels -- from publications including TIME Magazine, the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, the Washington Post, National Public Radio as well as leading online food writers. We had great folks to honor, from our Chef of the Year Thomas Keller and Educator of the Year Alton Brown, to sustainable foodservice leaders like Bon Appétit Management Co. and Compass Group North America.

A lot of folks are already writing about their experiences online, or were tweeting throughout the events.

The Washington Post's All We Can Eat blog highlighted our Seafood Watch Take Action cards as a great way to engage restaurants around sustainable seafood issues. Writer Jane Black also did a Q&A with Charles Clover, whose book about overfishing, The End of the Line, debuts as a documentary film on World Ocean Day, June 8. (Terra Wellington blogged it too, and includes a YouTube video with Ted Danson, who's the narrator for the film.)

For Gourmet's Barry Estabrook, news about a pending boom in humane treatment of farm animals was the top headline, and deftly headlined ("Humane Beings"). The potential that more than a third of farm animals will receive humane care within five years was startling -- and encouraging.

Chef Aaron French of Civil Eats offers examples of how writers are telling stories of sustainability to an audience that reaches well beyond the choir. Sam Fromartz shared with Chews Wise readers a range of topics, from seafood to ethical animal care, while alerting MIT's Sloan Management Review subscribers to the growth in consumer demand -- and business acceptance -- of seafood from sustainable sources.

Bonnie Powell shared the wisdom of Wes Jackson on The Ethicurean, including his contention that sustainability is a "value term, like justice and health." The post also explores a Bruegel painting used by Jackson to illustrate what a truly sustainable agricultural community looked like in another era. Food Gal Carolyn Jung offers up a photo tour of the people, purveyors in attendance -- as well as calling out the top news tidbits generated by the Institute.

From Julie Packard's opening remarks, reported by the Examiner, to Mark Anderson's tour of the events in words and photos; from Cheryl Sternman Rule's take on sustainable seafood on 5 second rule, to Fiona Robinson's observations about an aquaculture panel that didn't just bash the aquaculture industry -- there's a lot of good writing and reflecting out there.

With much, much more to come.

Photos of Alton Brown and Alexandra Guarnaschelli (c) Monterey Bay Aquarium/Randy Wilder.

Seafood Watch: TreeHugger's Best of Green

 Quite a day for honors! In addition to Julie Packard's recognition by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, we just learned that leading green website TreeHugger.com has selected the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program as the Best Source of Sustainable Seafood Information.

The recognition comes as part of TreeHugger's first-ever Best of Green Awards, honoring institutions and individuals who are leaders in every dimension of the movement to live more lightly on Planet Earth.

 TreeHugger also wants YOU to vote on the best-of-the-best: in each of the award categories and finally for an overall Best of Green honoree for 2009. You can vote for category winners through Earth Day, April 22; and then for the finalists from April 23 through April 30.

We're honored by the award, and would love to have your vote for Seafood Watch as the "best of the best" in the Food & Health category! Vote now -- and tell your friends!

Top Chefs

If you've ever wondered what it takes to craft tasty and healthy meals for the animals at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, wonder no longer. The folks at KQED's Quest science program go behind the scenes with the animal chefs at the aquarium to find out the secrets behind the squid tacos, krill shakes and fishy sausages that keep our exhibit animals in the swim. (Not surprisingly, our chefs follow Seafood Watch guidelines in choosing sustainable seafood for our animals.)

Quest airs in the San Francisco Bay Area, and video is archived on the Quest website. And you can watch it here:

iPhone Seafood Selections

If you're a seafood lover and an iPhone fan, this is your lucky day. We've just launched an iPhone app for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's popular Seafood Watch guides -- including our new sushi guide.

For iPhone and iPod touch users, sustainable seafood recommendations are now available at your fingertips wherever you are. The new app includes all of our national and regional pocket guides.

You can download to your Apple iPhone or iPod touch in one of two ways:

1. Visit us on our Seafood Watch pages to get your iPhone app.

2. Browse the App Store on your iPhone or iPod touch and download the free, official Seafood Watch app direct to your device.

Please let us know what you think of Version 1.0 Future updates are in the works.

Don't have an iPhone? Seafood Watch recommendations are available for any mobile device with an Internet connection.

Grassroots Sushi Activists

When we created our new Seafood Watch sushi pocket guide in October, we hoped folks would take the initiative to start talking with their sushi chefs -- encouraging them to offer seafood choices that protect ocean ecosystems. We even hosted a virtual sushi party on Facebook to jump-start the movement.

Well a group in Vancouver, B.C. has taken sustainable sushi to a whole 'nother level. Check this out:

Blogger Emily at 3rdwhale.com has created a PodMob that will reward a sushi restaurant willing to take a few steps in the direction of making better seafood choices by bringing a huge dinner party to the winning restaurant for a sustainable sushi party on November 20. Her blog (complete with a YouTube video call to action) tells it all!

Emily was, in turn, inspired by an enterprising fellow in San Francisco named Brent Schulkin, who's created the concept of the CarrotMob -- using consumer dollars as "carrots" to encourage small businesses to make choices that are better for the environment. Clearly, it's an idea that's catching on. He and his brain trust have even created a company, Virgance, to make it easier to use the power of social media to scale up novel activism efforts.

It's mindblowing, really. And very, very encouraging.

If You Knew Sushi...

Great news for sushi lovers. Three leading ocean conservation organizations -- the Seafood Watch program here at Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense Fund -- will release consumer guides for choosing sustainable sushi on October 22.

While the consumer guides –- in print, online and mobile device versions -– differ in appearance, all are based on similar data, and offer one consistent message: Our sushi choices have an impact on the future of the ocean.

"The reality is quite simple," says Sheila Bowman, outreach manager for Seafood Watch. "If you care about the future of the oceans, you'll avoid red-listed sushi."

For sushi aficionados, that means both pleasant surprises, and some disappointments. The "red" list includes items like bluefin tuna (hon maguro/kuro maguro) and freshwater eel (unagi), along with farmed salmon (sake). These species are either overfished, farmed with aquaculture methods that pollute the ocean, or caught using methods that destroy ocean habitats or kill large amounts of other sea life.

Green-listed "Best Choices" include wild-caught Alaska salmon (sake), farmed scallops (hotate) and Pacific halibut (hirame), in part because they come from abundant, well-managed fisheries or -– in the case of scallops -– are raised using sustainable aquaculture methods.

Pocket guides will be available on our Seafood Watch website on October 22 -- a day when we hope you'll take part in a Sustainable Sushi Party at home or your local sushi restaurant. The good news is that every sushi restaurant offers some sustainable items.

(If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out Tataki, currently the only 100% sustainable sushi restaurant we've found in North America. Casson Trenor, one of the folks behind Tataki, will publish a book about sustainable sushi in January 2009.)

In addition to our new Sushi Pocket Guide, we'll have other fun items for sustainable sushi advocates. I'll have more details in the next two weeks.

An Award for Seafood Watch

Big day here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Bon Appétit Magazine announced it's honoring us as its "Tastemaker of the Year" today, recognizing our Seafood Watch program for bringing the sustainable seafood message to a national audience.

Julie Packard, our executive director, will accept the award at the 11th Bon Appétit Awards ceremonies in New York City on September 12.

It's great to get recognition from one of the top culinary magazines in the United States. It's even better to see the way the public (and businesses) have embraced the idea that they can -- through their seafood choices -- make a difference for the health of the oceans.

It's a far cry from the way things were when we launched the program in 1999. The seafood industry was dismissive and market forces were perpetuating a decline in ocean wildlife populations across the globe.

Now, 24 million pocket guides later, we're partnering with restaurants and big food service companies that are eager to change their way of doing business.

As with sustainable and organic foods from land, folks are embracing the notion that we have a responsibility to protect the environment through our food choices.

If you haven't picked up your Seafood Watch pocket guide yet, they're easy to find online. You can also access our seafood recommendations via your mobile device.

And when you visit our website, you can sign up as a Seafood Watch Advocate -- helping spread the word in your community and circle of friends.

It's a great wave to ride.

Seawater Synergy

Now here's a brilliant idea:

Pipe seawater into the Sahara Desert, use solar energy to create freshwater via evaporation, then use the water to grow greenhouse crops that will feed a hungry world. And, as a bonus, build enough solar capacity to ship surplus energy from the Sahara to Europe.

It's still a dream, but there are demonstration projects in Tenerife, Oman and the United Arab Emirates -- and a lot of buzz today about the Sahara Forest Project, Check it out.....

As if that weren't enough, the Japanese are dreaming big, too. The Times of London reports on a vision for offshore "eco-rigs" that would generate energy from the sun and waves, and use some of the energy for aquaculture farms to raise seaweed, fish and plankton.

Sustainable Seafood Marches Forward

Great blog today by Deirdre Donovan in Zagat Buzz Los Angeles about the commitments chefs are making to source (and serve) sustainable seafood.

Looks like it was prompted by a survey Zagat conducted in which 54 percent of respondents said they “try to order sustainable seafood but can’t always keep track of what they are supposed to order.”

She cites programs like the Seafood Watch initiative here at Monterey Bay Aquarium, and similar efforts like Shedd Aquarium's Right Bite, New England Aquarium's Celebrate Seafood and the Blue Ocean Institute seafood program (among others) as ways consumers & chefs are getting good information to make better seafood choices.

She also recognizes chefs who are leading the way, including the amazing Ted and Cindy Walter of Passionfish, right next door to us in Pacific Grove, California.

Put this together with the fact that more food service providers are buying local and organic -- including the Kaiser Permanente health center in Oakland, California with public service announcements about food miles on Bay Area radio, its own on-site farmers market and a food blog on its website -- and you can feel the momentum growing.

That's all good news for the future of the oceans.