Sustainable seafood is gaining ground and Valey chefs and food providers have joined the list. They are part of a national effort to ensure seafood is caught in a way that maintains wild populations while limiting “bycatch” – fish and other sea life scooped up in nets or by trawlers, byproducts of the hunt.
Greg LaPrad, chef at Phoenix’s Quiessence, explained that they are doing this in order to protect the ocean and ensure we can eat seafood for generations to come. It is true that the sustainable-seafood movement gained momentum over the past decade as environmental research studies revealed hazardous fishing practices such as sea-bottom trawlers, massive gillnets and dredgers.
Investigation proves that the effect of trawlers has devastated a once-abundant cod population. It also left the surrounding U.S. and Canadian fishing communities in economic jeopardy. Maintaining aquatic populations isn’t an economic priority for desert dwellers. But serving sustainable seafood matters to chefs such as Charles Kassels, of El Chorro Lodge in Paradise Valley.
Glendale resident Cedar Mulligan, 33, grew up in Sitka, Alaska, where seafood processing is a major industry. He runs Alaskan Pride Seafood, which distributes the fish and shrimp Mulligan’s family catches in Alaska using sustainable hook-and-line and net methods. Scottsdale resident Tom Tierney, 46, owner of Amazing Grass Superfoods, is happy to support Mulligan’s business. The onetime potato- chip distributor said he’s drawn to the idea that consuming sustainably caught fish has health and environmental benefits.
