In the wild, salmon are carnivores; unlike, say, vegetarian cattle, they eat smaller fish on the road to our dinner plate. So here's the conundrum: should we buy a fish that's literally eating up the ocean's resources? What's the alternative? Farmed fish raised on an inexhaustible supply of soy pellets, a burger from a feedlot steer, an industrial chicken?
These musings prompted by an op-ed in today's NYTimes by novelist Paul Greenberg. Yeah, fish is fish, but eat smaller fish, he says, to avoid mercury and PCB contamination, and don't buy the cheap stuff; spend what it takes to support the more expensive (but better-for-the-ocean) line-caught fisheries. Lots of save-the-salmon groups out there, too. Long Live the Kings, sponsors of a recent salmon dinner at Flying Fish, focuses on hatchery reform, as good a place as any to start.
Meanwhile, at Fisherman's Terminal, the annual Fall Festival. Highlight: the Wild Salmon Fillet Challenge. So help me, the winner of the heat we videotaped was one "Speedy" Gonzales. YouTube link here. We bailed before they got to the Lutefisk Eating Contest.
Posted by Ronald Holden at September 9, 2006 11:37 AMGrateful to you both for excellent suggestions! See what happens when you blog? You learn stuff!
Posted by: Ronald at September 10, 2006 8:15 AMSupport wild sockeye, they're plankton feeders.
Posted by: Sally McArthur at September 10, 2006 7:36 AM"don't buy the cheap stuff; spend what it takes to support the more expensive (but better-for-the-ocean) line-caught fisheries"
As I am friends with (and related to) salmon fisherman, I applaud the sentiment. Yet there are cheap alternatives you can buy, guilt-free. The catch (as it were) is that the seafood is flash frozen when it is caught. Two Seattle-based companies come to mind. Aqua Star, which distributes through Albertson's here in CA, offers an array of single-serving filets and steaks often promoted at a dollar each: salmon, albacore, halibut, cod, tilapia, sole, and pollock, among others (and shrimp, of course). They achieve price points such as these through volume and efficiencies in distributions. Trident, another biggie, offers a ton of canned salmon stuff but also shellfish and finfish harvested by carefully supervised approved methods (no Greenpeace protests for either of these companies!). Trident's salmon burgers, available at Costco, are about a buck each.
So you're paying a hefty premium for fresh fish. Given the lack of provenance of most seafood (except maybe at the Pike Street Market where it comes flying at you), I'll go for the cheaper and literally fresh-frozen. Of course I don't have the good fortune to live on Puget Sound. My seasonal creek, when it's running carries not fish but tumbling rocks, which when I'm sufficiently soused look like a bit like steelhead.
Posted by: David at September 9, 2006 9:52 PM