By
FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News staff
In
New England’s open ocean, bays and estuaries nearly everything that swims,
crawls or borrows can be served on a plate and eaten. But the seafood options
at many restaurants and on display at most supermarkets represents just a thin
slice of New England’s fare — and that’s not a good thing for the health of the
region’s marine ecosystems.
This
absence of seafood diversity is not only a loss of culinary opportunity, but
also a potential source of ecological imbalance, according to Sarah Schumann,
president of Rhode Island-based Eating with the
Ecosystem. The Warren resident has been delivering this message
across the region since she founded the organization two years ago.
Since
the type of seafood listed on menus or available at grocery store counters
doesn’t always match what’s truly available in the ocean, Schumann says this
hidden discrepancy stresses local fisheries — the fishermen, targeted species
and ecosystems.
After
spending a sizable chunk of her life on or in the water and studying the marine
environment, she has become concerned about the environmental impacts of our
seafood choices. This growing concern led her to establish Eating with the
Ecosystem* in 2012. The nonprofit’s mission is to promote the culinary delights
of New England’s underutilized seafood species.
Schumann
says consuming seafood responsibly means dining on a wider variety of species;
it means leaving your culinary comfort zone. Instead of buying cod or ordering
shrimp, satisfy your taste buds with razor clams, periwinkles or a conch.
Scientists
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported
that the Atlantic cod population in the Gulf of Maine is at an all-time low. In
an early-August notice,
scientists warned fishery managers that this new analysis presented “a grim
picture for the recovery of this iconic fish.”
Nearly
every indicator of the stock condition declined in the past year, to the point
that the total of adult fish, known as spawning biomass, is estimated to be
about 4 percent of a sustainable population, according to Peter Baker, who
directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. ocean conservation efforts in the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The
Commerce Department declared the fishery a disaster in
2012, and nearly $33 million in federal aid is being distributed to New England
fishermen.
Atlantic slipper limpets are common marine snails native to the northeastern U.S. coast. (Karen Chan/WHOI) |
Shrimp,
like cod, is a popular seafood choice. Americans alone consume more than a
billion pounds of shrimp annually.
However, about 90 percent of the shrimp sold
in the United States is imported from overseas aquaculture facilities that
harvest it in ways that cause significant habitat destruction and environmental
degradation.
One of Schumann’s favorite shellfish is the underappreciated Atlantic slipper limpet. The shell of these common marine snails, also known as “quarterdecks” and “boat shells,” are a familiar sight on beaches up and down the East Coast.
They live and breed in stacks, attaching themselves to rocks, pilings and other shells. These snails, a sliver of orange flesh braced tightly within their shells, taste kind of like scallops, but this plentiful species hasn’t caught on as a popular seafood option.
In
fact, the list of local seafood species that are underutilized is long, from
monkfish and sea robins to unappetizing-sounding dogfish, skate and scup. But
lobsters didn’t look appealing more than a century ago, when they were fed to
servants, or used as bait or fertilizer. Today they sell for between $4 and $6
a pound.
Thanks
to the efforts of Schumann, local enterprising chefs and adventurous
consumers, species once referred to as “rough” or “trash” are now being
ordered, served, bought and eaten — thus taking some pressure off overfished
species such as cod.
The
depletion of overfished species means other species such as pollock, tautog and
redfish have taken their place in New England’s marine ecosystems. But based on
trips to the supermarket or dinners out, consumers are likely to see plenty of
cod but no slipper limpets, dogfish or skate.
The
more popular seafood choices are often top predators such as bluefin tuna,
swordfish and salmon. But consuming species lower on the food chain, such as
hake and sand and rock crabs, is generally regarded as more sustainable and
environmentally responsible.
Schumann
believes most sustainability campaigns are focused on the global view, which
ignores the complexity of smaller interdependent ecosystems. The world’s oceans
aren’t one large ecosystem — a consumer in Hong Kong, for example, has a vastly
different selection of more sustainable seafood options (giant grouper, say)
than someone in Iceland (red mullet).
However,
responsible seafood consumption isn’t just about what we eat, she says.
Schumann says it’s also about a changing climate, the introduction of invasive
species, habitat loss, and ocean acidification from greenhouse gas emissions.
Seafood
can be considered sustainable if it’s harvested in quantities small enough to
prevent negative impacts to its population and is caught in a way that doesn’t
harm other species or marine habitats, according to Julia Beaty, a Maine-based
fisheries social scientist.
“Sustainability
is all about the future productivity of marine ecosystems,” she wrote in a
recent piece for Newport-based Sailors for the
Sea. In her essay,
Beaty highlighted five questions that consumers should ask to determine if
their seafood is environmentally responsible:
What
type of fishing gear
was used? Indiscriminate high-impact gear such as purse seines, gill nets and
trawls typically results in more bycatch — also called by-kill — compared to
selective gear such as hooks, traps and harpoons.
How
much bycatch does
this gear usually cause? Bycatch or by-kill refers to species that are caught
incidentally by fishermen who are usually targeting just one or two. Bycatch
can include a species that a fisherman isn’t permitted to harvest, such as a
fish caught out of season, or one that is smaller or larger than the legal
size.
Does
this gear type damage
marine habitats? If fishing gear touches the seafloor it can damage marine
habitats, causing major impacts on the health of a marine ecosystem. Bottom
trawls are the most notorious example of fishing-induced habitat destruction.
Bottom trawls catch fish by dragging heavy gear along the bottom, and are
particularly harmful to rocky habitats, sponges and corals. Pole-caught,
handline, troll or trap-caught seafoods are better options.
Where
on the food chain
does this species fall? Fish that are low on the food chain are generally more
sustainable options because they are, for the most part, more abundant. They
also reproduce at a younger age, which helps them recover relatively quickly
from low to moderate levels of overfishing.
Is it wild or farm-raised? Most of the seafood consumed in
the United States is harvested from wild populations. However, the amount of
farm-raised fish and shellfish in U.S. seafood markets is rapidly expanding.
There are benefits and environmental costs associated with aquaculture. Some
argue that aquaculture is necessary to feed a growing human population while
also supporting the health of marine ecosystems by taking pressure off wild
stocks. Others argue that aquaculture relies too heavily on wild-caught fish to
create feed for farm-raised fish and that it pollutes the environment with fish
waste and antibiotics. Farm-raised mussels, clams and oysters are generally
beneficial to marine ecosystems because they feed by filtering seawater.
Eating
with the Ecosystem and the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association are
planning an underutilized species dinner for Oct. 25 at the Wakefield Elks
Club.
*ecoRI
News editor Frank Carini is an Eating with the Ecosystem board member.