September 9, 2006
Fishy questions, fishy answers
In the wild, salmon are carnivores; unlike, say, vegetarian cattle, they eat smaller fish on the road to our dinner plate. So here's the conundrum: should we buy a fish that's literally eating up the ocean's resources? What's the alternative? Farmed fish raised on an inexhaustible supply of soy pellets, a burger from a feedlot steer, an industrial chicken?
These musings prompted by an op-ed in today's NYTimes by novelist Paul Greenberg. Yeah, fish is fish, but eat smaller fish, he says, to avoid mercury and PCB contamination, and don't buy the cheap stuff; spend what it takes to support the more expensive (but better-for-the-ocean) line-caught fisheries. Lots of save-the-salmon groups out there, too. Long Live the Kings, sponsors of a recent salmon dinner at Flying Fish, focuses on hatchery reform, as good a place as any to start.
Meanwhile, at Fisherman's Terminal, the annual Fall Festival. Highlight: the Wild Salmon Fillet Challenge. So help me, the winner of the heat we videotaped was one "Speedy" Gonzales. YouTube link here. We bailed before they got to the Lutefisk Eating Contest.