Advocates focus on best ways to use precious seafood resources.


Herman Melville's Captain Ahab of Moby Dick may have been the first fisherman to practice sustainability. The Pequod captain's quest to catch one whale is right in line with what advocates for a sustainable seafood industry believe today.

Modern-day examples of sustainable fishermen include harpooners who catch swordfish along the Atlantic coast of northern Canada and divers who use spear guns to snag lionfish in the South Atlantic and Caribbean. These fishermen have a one-fish-per-device limit that eliminates bycatch, the trapping of non-targeted species in nets or long lines.

Of course, the Ahab comparison can also be seen in a negative way: Some fishermen have a single-minded quest to catch members of lucrative but dwindling species, like the bluefin tuna. The tuna sell for nearly $2 million every January and about $100,000 the rest of the year.

"That's the scarcity theory of value, the kind of thing that happens with elephant ivory or tiger skins," says Christopher Mann of the Pew Charitable Trusts' campaign for healthy oceans. "That's why we have tended to focus on [making] unsustainable tuna fishing illegal. What we can hope to do is make the countries of the world unite around the idea that this is a crazy way to exploit a resource."

Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, says the American consumer should be the No. 1 target for messages about preserving the oceans. The U.S. is second only to China in seafood consumption. Americans consumed 4.7 billion pounds of seafood in 2011, about 15 pounds per person.

"Sadly, slowing down this behemoth is almost impossible," Zimmern says. "If we could eat two more or three more meals a week from the alternative protein bucket that includes small fish with the head on it, octopus and a whole range of seafood, we could self-correct the horrific damage we've done to our food system in America in about 18 to 24 months."

One of those alternative fish is the snakehead, a non-native species with no natural predators that has gained a foothold in the Potomac River around Washington, D.C. Its name and looks are unappealing, but the fish tastes good—really. And local chefs are now serving it in an effort to ease its effect on the region's native fish.

"A lot of the species are just not palatable," says John Rorapaugh of Profish, a major seafood vendor in Washington. "But [snakehead] is a beautiful protein, just as good as rockfish, or maybe better." Profish now pays suppliers up to $5.50 per pound of snakehead, about 10 times more than it pays for catfish.

Positive steps, but Zimmern says more needs to be done. "We're going to lose species, wetlands, manageable oceans, so many things, and I think one of those things is going to end up getting everybody's attention and create the social movement necessary for real change to happen."


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