December 1, 2013 — Three colors — red, yellow and green — safely direct traffic to prevent car crashes. But for the seafood industry, those colors always seem to clash.
The familiar hues represent the buy or avoid recommendations from Seafood Watch, a consumer-facing sustainable seafood program founded by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The power those colors represent, particularly when they change for a given species or fishery, can create ripples wherever that seafood is sold while invoking emotional responses along the nation’s coastlines where it is harvested.
The latest news from Monterey, Calif., was mostly good: In October, Seafood Watch gave solid marks to a vast majority of the 242 U.S. fishery species it assesses — 95 percent earned either a green (best choice) or yellow (good alternative) rating. Ratings changes for two iconic fisheries, one that went up and one that went down, have suppliers experiencing a range of reactions, from incensed to indifferent.
When asked about any sales bumps due to the upgrade for American red snapper (from red, or avoid, to yellow), Steven Rash says, “Not that I’m aware of.”
The owner of Water Street Seafood in Apalachicola, Fla., says the work of state and federal regulators, charged with “maintaining stability and sustainability” in the fishery, means more to him and his business than anything the aquarium could say. American red snapper has long born Seafood Watch’s scarlet letter because of reports of dwindling stocks and ineffective management. However, an individual fishing quota (IFQ) system implemented in 2007 has benefited the Gulf of Mexico population, according to Seafood Watch.
But Rash, like many fishermen and seafood dealers, is skeptical of that assessment, non-governmental agendas and tactics that “shame” consumers into not buying fish like red snapper.
“U.S. fishermen are probably the most managed in the world,” he adds. While Rash doesn’t gush over IFQs nor the derby-style system that preceded it, he admits regulation is strong and necessary but that compliance often goes unrecognized. Fishermen from other countries, on the other hand, are “fishing Atlantic stocks unregulated. And the one group getting managed [properly] always gets punished.”
Water Street does a brisk red snapper business, selling the fish direct to restaurants and wholesalers across the country; yet none have brought up the new rating. As fishermen tell him and as he tells his customers, “There’s lots and lots of snappers out there.”
Read the full story at Seafood Business