Sustainable Seafood: Making a Market for Local Catch

Title: Sustainable Seafood: Making a Market for Local Catch

Discussion Group Leaders: Ed Chiles and Karen Bell

Main Conservation Points

• We have the ultimate wild seafood industry and we’re not valuing it as much as we should.
• We are not only fishing for your kids, but also for your kids' ability to fish in the future.
• We have the opportunity and resources to be more sustainable.
• Interconnection of culture with policy.

Mullet

• The mullet industry is one of the largest industries in America.
• Problems of mullets:
  • Perception
  • Large costs for shipping (four pound mullet can cost $28)
• Benefits of mullets:
  • Large numbers
  • Good for your health- connected with preventing heart disease
  • Can be used to make fertilizer
  • Can bring economic value to the community
• Small Town of Cortex is a large producer of Mullets.
• First company in America to sell Bottarga (which also has great health benefits), a product that can be sold at 6-12 dollars per pound.
• Knowledge barriers:
  • We have to study more about mullets because we don’t really understand that much
  • Periodic stock assessments on mullets are being done. There is one in Tampa Bay every five years or so.
• Ask yourself: how healthy is the bay and land where mullets are found?

Sarasota Bay is one of the healthiest bays and there are laws preventing some forms of littering.

• There was a recent overabundance of mullets that set an unusual set of circumstances that should not be expected in the future. All the right conditions came into play this time: seven-year cyclical pattern, weather conditions were right.
• Environmental Ethics/Concerns:
  • Mullets are very wasteful due to large amounts of by-catch. The water after mullets have been fished can be seen as red.
  • Cast Nets VS Gill Nets: Cast net – you throw it off the coast. You throw the circular net out , whatever you get is what you get. Gill net- you have a pork line and a cork line, It is called a gill net because the rope strangles the net.
  • Water pollution- “What if you could see underneath the water?” It would not be good. Pollution can have detrimental effects on our fisheries and health.

Venotamo Aquaculture

• Southern in Spain near the Atlantic Ocean.
• They pumped all the water out and then back in. Lots of diversity in animals can be found.
• Brown Trading Company. You will see the finest chefs in the world going to this aquaculture. Even the Rockefellers are putting millions of dollars into this project.

Positive Solutions

• We have to define our geographical locations; coordinate together to write up a plan.
• Educating the public.
• We have to strike a balance between sustainability and economic decision-making.

Other Topics

• Read ‘Four Fish’- a bestselling book relating to sustainable fishing.
• The Gulf Coast Recovery Act is moving through Congress right now. 85% of any collected money from oil companies (like BP) would be given back to the states
• Can you continue to sell a saltwater license? Limit entries- hard to get by due to the political battle that it requires; Formal validity entry is quite easy to get – there is no validity and it is rampant.

“What we have seen today has been heritage and passion. We should value our heritage. We should value the state of the fisheries. There just really isn’t enough people studying these areas in depth. We have to understand that there are different possibilities. We have to work on our culture’s ability to value nature while still utilizing it at highest value possible.” – Ed Chiles