When it comes to food, I make an effort to buy local items as often as possible. Part of it is to financially support my state, if not my county, and part of it is to minimize the pollution required to transport products imported from far away.
When faced with seafood choices however, my wannabe-environmentalist mind feels racked with guilt and confusion. Is wild seafood really always better than farmed? How do I know if it was harvested in a sustainable way? When, where, and how was the seafood caught? These are the type of questions that leave me so clueless and frustrated that I just walk away from the seafood counter empty-handed time after time.
I was walking around my local farmer's market last weekend with my husband and two-year-old daughter, and we stopped by the new crab stall because my daughter was mesmerized by the creatures. A young woman with a sunny disposition took the time to let her touch the crabs and label certain parts of its anatomy. As we were leaving, I grabbed her business card. It told me her name was Sarah Rathbone and she ran a community supported fishery (CSF) called Community Seafood. I knew she would be the perfect person to pester with my burning questions!
GM: As a grocery store consumer, I have the choice of farmed or wild fish. I'm told wild fish is environmentally preferable over farmed, but I'm also concerned about depleting the ocean's resources. Is buying wild fish always better than buying farmed fish?
Sarah: There are some fish farming operations that are environmentally friendly. They are usually fresh water fish like trout, baramundi and catfish in onshore tanks on land. Farmed oysters, clams, mussels, abalone and seaweed are also environmentally friendly. The main problem with farmed fish is that in order for the operation to be profitable, the operators must overload fish in a cage (netted enclosures). In order to keep those fish from spreading disease in this crowded environment, anitbiotics need to be given to the fish. Farmed fish are generally fed fish pellets and fish oil made from wild caught bait fish, and it takes six wild fish to feed one farmed fish. There are very few environmentally friendly shrimp, salmon or tuna farming operations, and many additives and dyes are added to these fish to make it look more appetizing since the farmed fish do not receive the proper nutrients and habitat to produce healthy, high quality fish. This may change in the future as aquaculture regulations get stricter and technology improves.
GM: I rarely see stores with seafood labeled as sustainable. Moreover the seafood watch charts can be so daunting, with the type of fish, location caught, and even catch method playing a role over the best choices of seafood. I'm so racked with guilt that I end up rarely buying fish at all. How can I make my sustainable seafood shopping process easier?
Sarah: I totally agree with all of this and share your feelings! Because there is so much seafood labeling fraud (90% of food establishments have at least one seafood item mislabeled, and for big grocers with a lot of imported seafood, it is likely much more) it is very hard to know you are buying sustainable seafood even when it is labeled as such. That is a big reason we started the CSF.
Buying local seafood from a fisherman or fishmonger you trust is one of the only ways to be sure you are getting what you think you are getting. For instance, if a fish market is located near the harbor, you can be sure the fishermen are keeping an eye out to make sure that the fillets at the market's counter labeled “local seafood” is really local. It’s the local fishermen who suffer when others try to charge you a premium for “local seafood” that is actually cheap imported product. Luckily, there are few US fisheries that are cause for concern. US fisheries management has become very strict and pro-environment in the last decade. So eating local, or anywhere from the Pacific coast, is a safe bet in California. That being said, it’s always best to establish a relationship with your fisherman so you know what seafood you’re getting, how it was caught, when it was caught, and where it was caught.
GM: What progress do you hope to see in the seafood industry in the next 5 to 10 years?
Sarah: I would like to see more awareness among consumers of what it takes for fishermen to catch seafood sustainably and responsibly. I would like consumers to appreciate freshness and high quality seafood that is provided to them from their own backyards. California has some of the best managed fisheries in the world, but these strict regulations also raise the cost of fishing. Fishermen want the marine resource to be long-lived just like everyone else, or they would be out of a job. Fishermen can take even better care of these resources when they can fish less but deliver high quality seafood that brings them good prices. Our main goal when we established our CSF was to reward fishermen for taking this path.
GM: How did Community Seafood get started?
Sarah: Community Seafood started from a collaboration between researchers at UCSB and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and the president of the local fishermen’s organization, Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara (CFSB). They were awarded a grant to conduct a feasibility study about public interest in a Community Supported Fishery program. With over 1,700 people adamant about seeing a CSF come to Santa Barbara, we realized that we had to make this happen! A few months later, with lots of persistence and drive, we launched our month long pilot season on June 6th. Our first full 12-week season will launch on July 11th with 78 members and counting!
GM: I've participated in CSA, but this is the first time I hear about CSF. How common are CSF?
Sarah: I’m very happy to report that while Community Supported Fisheries (CSF) programs are a relatively new business model, their popularity is on the rise! Stephanie Mutz (CFSB’s president) and I recently attended the first international CSF Summit in Portsmouth, NH this past month. There, we met fellow local seafood enthusiasts who have started, or would like to start, their own CSFs in their area. Approximately 25 CSFs were represented at the summit. These programs are mostly concentrated in New England and the Carolinas, but there are three others on the West Coast and two in Canada. I strongly believe that CSFs and other businesses that facilitate the direct relationship between the fishermen and the consumer are the cutting edge of seafood marketing. I hope that this is where we are all headed!
GM: Are there unique challenges with CSF that CSA doesn't face?
Sarah: Of course! While a CSF uses the general business model of a CSA, there are differences that present unique challenges. In a CSA, the public usually signs up with a single farm that provides them with boxes of vegetables and fruits grown on that farm. With our CSF, instead of the public signing up with a single fishermen, you’re signing up with the whole harbor! By sourcing from a multitude of fishermen, we get to provide a wide diversity of seafood over the course of the season that represents the breadth of fish and crustaceans landed in Southern California. We hope to use the CSF not only as a way to provide high quality, locally sourced seafood to our community, but also as an educational platform to increase consumers’ awareness about where their seafood comes from and who their local fisherman is!
GM: As a CSF, do you have to follow the same health regulations in place for commercial fishing and seafood processing? How do I know that the seafood I get has been handled safely?
Sarah: As with any food business, health regulations for seafood are very strict. We had to obtain multiple health department permits from both the state and county level in order to launch Community Seafood. Additionally, there’s a federally mandated program that is required to certify anyone who wants to work with seafood. This program is called the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification. I underwent the rigorous training in May which involved thorough, hands-on simulations of hazard identification, correction, stabilization, monitoring, and recording. Potential hazards of each fish and crustacean species was detailed and we worked up a plan for every species we handle should a hazard arise. Currently, Community Seafood is partnering with the Santa Barbara Fish Market to do all of our processing. Their employees are very skilled and are fully trained in the proper handling and safety issues associated with seafood.
GM: For our readers who don't live near an ocean/CSF, what's their best options for seafood?
Sarah: If you don’t have easy access to seafood I recommend that you try your best to connect to your local food network. This can be in the form of farmer’s markets, restaurants, or smaller, speciality markets that pride themselves on locally sourced produce and meats. These places tend to cater to the conscious consumer that’s willing to do the “leg work” and ask the probing questions: Where does this food come from? When was it caught? How was it raised? Was this beef entirely grass fed, or was finished off with a grain diet? Was this fish farmed or wild-caught? How many steps removed is the market from the person producing the food? The more questions you ask, the more information you get, and the more educated you become about your food choices. In this day and age, with so many “sustainable” labels, it’s important to tease out the real meaning of these designations. Additionally, by asking these questions, you’re bringing consumer concerns into focus for local restaurants and markets, and demanding a higher consciousness about where they source their food from. This is a major way to affect change. Without demand for food sourcing accountability, there is no reason to create that supply!
Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us. I wish you the best of luck with Community Seafood's first full season! For those who want to find and connect with their community's food growers, Seacoast Harvest and Local Harvest are two excellent online resources.
