April 6, 2018 — Ziggy Gruber took a knife to the cardboard boxes, cracking them open to reveal 400 pounds of smoked fish.

The third-generation deli man sifted through the fresh delivery of nova salmon, sable and whitefish, flown in weekly from his supplier in Brooklyn. Gruber, the owner of Kenny & Ziggy’s in the Galleria area, is one of the largest purveyors of smoked fish outside of New York City, selling more than 1,000 pounds of lox and whitefish a week.

Looking over his fish order, Gruber noted he requested 20 pieces of sturgeon this week, but only three showed up. The sturgeon shortage has nearly doubled prices over the past two years, to $38 per pound from around $20, Gruber said.

“I see less and less,” Gruber said. “There’s only so much fish to go around.”

The consequences of a growing global appetite for seafood and warming seas are being felt in the kitchens of some of Houston’s most prominent seafood restaurants. Chefs are dealing with shifts in the seasonal availability of some fish, while dwindling supply of other fish are causing prices to climb.

The situation has become so dire at times that when Gruber’s fish supplier, Acme Smoked Fish, informed him four years ago that there might be a shortage of smoked fish over Yom Kippur — the Jewish deli’s busiest day — Gruber took the first flight to New York to plead with Acme to find some way to ship some 3,000 pounds of smoked fish for the holiday.

The order came through, but ever since, Gruber said, he keeps his fingers crossed around Yom Kippur.

“I’m concerned about the sustainability of these fish,” he said. “The combination of climate change and overfishing has turned an item that people consumed on a daily basis into a luxury item. And that’s sad.”

Manabu “Hori” Horiuchi of Kata Robata, a sushi restaurant in Upper Kirby, is one of a few chefs in the U.S. certified in preparing fugu, or blowfish, a popular delicacy among daring customers.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle