Generation Next: Us?

Link to Article: http://www.litchfieldfarms.net/Images/SeaFood%20Business%20Article.pdf/

The June 2010 cover story of Seafood Business Magazine is entitled "Generation Next." This article highlights our company and two others that each have slightly different views of sustainability yet share a common "passion for high-quality seafood that consumers can trust - and that benefits the harvesters and producers."

I am glad that we are recognized as part of the next generation of fishmongers, yet I think the article also highlights that we are also very unique.

Our uniqueness is premised on our recognition of the fact that mankind has never been able to manage a wild species as a sustainable food source; and seafood is no exception. Failure to recognize the inherent impossibility of managing wild ocean species for food reflects an industry and governmental bias and campaign to support the seafood industry at the expense of our oceans health.

One of the other companies highlighted in the article asserts that "[w]e need to support the fisheries that are making responsible decisions and leading the recovery." This assertion accepts the false assumption that there can be a recovery. The notion of recovery in wild fisheries is nurtured and furthered by various NGOs that are adjuncts to industrialized fishing and the governmental agencies that support commercial fishing. There simply can be no "recovery." We can protect various wild species in the short term, however such efforts merely slow the inevitable demise of commercial fisheries. Seafood is a finite resource and so long as we continue to increase commercial harvests the resource will be depleted. As over 75% of world species are either in a state of collapse or severely depleted, and the remainder are at the limits of their ability to survive, the only way to even approach a "recovery" is to dramatically reduce fishing pressures, i.e., cease virtually all large scale commercial fishing. We need to make hard choices if we wish to preserve ocean resources for future generations. The choices currently promoted only slow the eventual demise of all now know commercial species.

Another of the companies highlighted supports a NGO and governmental model that accepts that "[m]ost of our [United States] stocks are not overfished and the American public should know that." This belief is based on the concept of managed commercial fishery stocks that measures its success by how much fish is available for harvest. Once a species is fished to the edge of extinction it is no longer considered a commercial species by NOAA and the NGOs, so claims of a managed sustainable commercial fishery are self fulfilling to large extent. Thus, any claims of success in managing domestic commercial species fails to account for all the species that have been fished past the point of commercial viability. It is easy to claim success in fish management when the failed efforts of the past just disappear- sort of like having an "A" average in school while all the "F"s are not counted in the grading. The chart below highlights the overfished species of New England with a graphic for the cod harvest- a species that has been managed for decades. How does this reconcile with the often repeated mantra that US species are well managed and safe to eat?

The true future for "Generation Next" is for us to all reduce our seafood consumption; and what fish we do eat must reflect cultural values by supporting sustainable aquaculture and local family fishermen. This is the essence of cultural sustainability and I hope you will join me in supporting this vision- for the sake of the planet and future generations.