But what about your friends? Have you wondered how to include them in the conversation around ocean-friendly seafood?

Well, we’ve got something for that.

Here at Blue Ocean, we teamed up with an all-star group of conservation organizations: David Suzuki Foundation, FishWise, Monterey bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, New England Aquarium, SeaChoice, Shedd Aquarium, and Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise. We’re helping seafood lovers coast to coast–in the U.S. and Canada–make informed, ocean-friendly seafood choices.

This month, we’ve teamed up to launch Be Happy–an online community for seafood-loving families to put their best fish faces forward, while learning more about sustainable seafood. We want people to get to know seafood choices they can be happy about.

Be Happy applications allow Facebook users to pledge support for ocean-friendly seafood, upload pictures of friends and family making funny fish faces and compete for “Fish Face of the Week” honors. Subscribers can also get easy and delicious ideas for preparing seafood at home, ask questions of sustainable seafood experts, dive into fishy trivia, or simply show off their support for a cause that keeps families and the oceans happy.

So how can you include your friends?

• Go to www.Facebook.org/BeHappyFish and “Like” us.
• Sign the pledge.
• Post a fish face.
• Keep looped into the conversation and share with your friends.

Here’s wishing you (and your friends) a happy 2012!

Brian at the Pump photo credit: Shelly Solomon

In many places where oysters once thrived, baby oysters are missing something that they need in order to grow: the shells of their ancestors.

I know it sounds sort of romantic or symbolic, but it is literally the case that when baby oysters are in their larval stage – at about two weeks of age – they need to attach themselves to some kind of substrate, in this case a piece of shell, so that they can settle down and go about the business of growing. “They stay on that substrate for life,” explains Karen Rivara of Peconic Pearls.

Here’s a video in which Rivara, owner of Aeros Cultured Oyster Company and secretary of the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative, describes the nuts and bolts of oyster farming and all the things that oysters need to grow successfully:

The pieces of shell are necessary to keep the baby oysters from being enveloped by the muddy bottom of the sea floor, which kills them. Technically, it doesn’t have to be shells from oysters, but it has to be a shell that’s sturdy enough and big enough to rest on the surface of the sea floor without sinking in. Mussel shells, for example, are too thin, light, brittle, and small. Big clam shells will suffice, but the best choice of all is oyster shell. It seems like finding old shells shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean, how hard can it be for a baby oyster to find a nice piece of broken shell to call home?

Pretty hard, it turns out! Oyster populations have fallen in many places where there just aren’t enough shells left on the sea floor to support a healthy community. “A lack of oyster shells is a limiting factor in the restoration of oyster populations,” explains Betsy Peabody, founder and executive director of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund. She and her staff have set about bringing cast off oyster shells to the places where Olympia oysters, native to the area, are growing but not thriving.

Several different factors have contributed to the decimation of oyster populations. The lack of shells is due to a combination of factors: over-harvesting, habitat destruction, poor water quality and, in some places, turbulence from the wakes of motor boats. I asked Peabody if acidification was playing any role in damaging the oyster population. She said that there is a two year monitoring program in place and that they do see chemical changes in the water in Puget Sound– low ph – and they also observed some larval mortality. They don’t yet know, however, what the biological responses to these changes will be.

There are many benefits to restoring oyster populations to health – environmental, nutritional, and cultural. Oysters are filter feeders, meaning that the fact that they filter algae out of the water in order to eat it has the beneficial side effect of cleaning excess algae out of the water. Many communities are experiencing trouble with an excess of algae in their local body of water and some are contemplating building expensive sewage systems to deal with the problem, but in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, they are contemplating addressing the problem by restoring oyster populations instead. In “Oysters to the Rescue,” an article in Wicked Local/Wellfleet, Curt Felix, founder of Plankton Power, Inc., stated that sewers “cost about $500 to $1,000 per pound of nitrogen removed. If you look at natural systems, in particular oysters, you can do the same removal for about $5 a pound.” Oyster beds can also help to fight the effects of erosion by building up the shoreline.

For the tribes native to the Puget Sound area – Suquamish, SquaxinIsland, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Skokomish, and Jamestown S’klallam – restoring the oysters would provide them with a highly nutritious food that is part of their traditional diet. If the restoration efforts make it possible to grow enough oysters, they might have enough to conduct a ceremonial harvest.

So, how to address this problem? Clearly, there are shells out there. Look in the kitchen of any seafood restaurant at the end of the night. A lot of shells are currently entering the waste stream rather than being recycled and brought back to the shore to support the next generation of oysters. Peabody and her crew – and those involved in similar programs across the country (see below) – are working with restaurants to collect the empty shells generated when they serve oysters to customers.

I asked Robert Spaulding, executive chef at Elliot’s Oyster House in Seattle, to tell me about how his restaurant participates in the shell recycling process:

“We collect the shells in a garbage can and put them into a dumpster designated specifically for them.  They are not refrigerated, however they are picked up three times a week. This effort has been organized at a grass roots level and is all about creating value for those involved.  There is value in that many of the people who will be donating shell will not have to pay for that shell to be removed from the premises as they would if it were regular garbage.  There is PR value in involvement and there is long term reward in a continued and strengthened supply of shellfish and the environment to support that supply. There is value in it for them because they can show they are doing something positive for the environment with small investment in space and resources. Then it’s a matter of engaging other restaurants and oyster processors/farmers.  Show them the value and create buy-in.”

When I asked him if patrons expressed interest in the afterlives of the oyster shells he said:

“Patrons definitely express interest.  We have guests ask about what we do with the shells all the time.  We do let them know what happens to the shells and in fact get a lot of positive response. Our shuckers and service staff are educated in what is done with the shell as well as to the importance of the oyster as an integral part of the marine habitat.  They relate this to our guests when it seem appropriate in their conversation.”

An important – and necessary – part of the process is that the shells must be set aside to cure for an extended period before being returned to the water. This is done so that any disease-carrying substances that may be on the shell will have expired and cannot contaminate the oyster bed. In some places the shells are left to cure for six months whereas in other places they are left to cure for 18 months. In short, don’t toss freshly shucked shells into the water.

There are many oyster shell recycling programs all over the United States. We are putting together a list. If you know of one, please email us at rcummins@blueocean.org.

Here is a partial list of oyster recycling programs:

The Oyster Reef Restoration Project in the Indian River Lagoon, co-sponsored by Brevard Zoo and the Nature Conservancy, in Central Florida

Galveston Bay

Wellfleet 

Chesapeake BayFoundation

Maryland Oyster Recovery Project

South Carolina

New Hampshire: Great Bay

- Roz Cummins

photo credit: NOAA

Lots of people have told me that they aren’t sure what to make of aquaculture. Having heard that some kinds of fish farming are deleterious to the environment, some people assume that all farming of fish and shellfish is bad (not true), while others assume that all of it is good because they think that it takes pressure off of wild populations (not always true).  Here’s the real situation: if aquaculture had a Facebook relationship status it would read “It’s complicated.”

The environmental – and, for that matter, socioeconomic – impact of farming fish or shellfish depends a lot on what, where, and how it is being raised. This description of aquaculture lists some of the benefits and also some of the common problems that are associated with it.

 For example, Salmon farming can harm wild populations due to the spread of diseases from fish in overcrowded pens to populations of wild salmon that swim nearby. Farmed salmon also sometimes escape, creating competition with the wild population for resources, such as the fish that they feed on. Densely populated pens can also produce a great deal of waste, and some farms use strong pesticides to treat infestations, like sea lice, that afflict the salmon in their pens.

On the other hand, farming shellfish, such as oysters, clams, or mussels, raises few environmental concerns. These mollusks are filter feeders, so they do not need to be fed any man-made “feed,” and they actually clean the waters where they are grown. You couldn’t find a more environmentally-friendly form of seafood.

Some fish are even farmed on land in closed containers, such as Barramundi. In the U.S., farmed Barramundi is raised in closed aquaculture systems, where water is recycled and very little waste is released into the environment. The waste that is released is heavily treated and can be used as fertilizer for agriculture. So, as you can see, whether aquaculture is “good” or “bad” is determined in large part by the type of production system and species in question.

Humans have been raising fish and shellfish for millennia. Historically, farmed fish and shellfish provided only a small portion of the seafood eaten around the world. Recently, however, aquaculture is playing an increasingly large role in the effort to meet – and profit from – the global demand for seafood. According to the FAO, the amount of seafood produced via aquaculture for human consumption is poised to overtake wild caught fish in the near future. (In fact, this watershed moment already came to pass last year if you include fish raised for animal consumption and other products.)

Aquaculture is not going to go away anytime soon – nor should it. However, there needs to be an effort to discover the best ways to produce seafood while simultaneously caring for the populations of fish and shellfish, the people who tend the farms, and the wider physical environment in which all of this activity takes place. Right now, most nations are forging their own policies and there are few laws or guidelines that exist that address aquaculture concerns on an international basis.

In the U.S., NOAA has recently published its new National Marine Aquaculture Policy. While it’s good to see that they are engaging with the issue and putting time, effort, and resources toward creating an effective policy, so far the document that they have produced falls short of the goal of producing meaningful principles and guidelines and providing effective means of enforcement. Furthermore, it’s being based on provisions within the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was really written to address issues having to do with wild populations of fish, not farmed fish and shellfish, which means that this ends up being sort of like putting on mittens because your feet are cold – not quite the right solution to the problem.

According to Dr. George Leonard, Ocean Conservancy’s  aquaculture program director, while the draft policy was a step in the right direction, “NOAA needs to call on Congress to empower the agency with the needed authority to protect our ocean from the well-known environmental risks caused by ocean fish farming. There is currently no guarantee that any new fish farms will be required to meet these guidelines. Unless and until comprehensive new federal legislation that addresses environmental, socioeconomic, and liability concerns is passed, open ocean aquaculture should not proceed in our ocean.”

In an interview with Blue Ocean Institute, Leonard enumerated the environmental dangers posed by open ocean fish farming. There are concerns about nutrient pollution, escapement, and issues around the amount and type of feed needed to raise fish in an aquaculture setting.

Leonard also expressed concern that the policy as it is written explicitly states the guidelines as being discretionary. He explained that it was designed to ensure flexibility and be easily modified. Leonard noted in particular that even the section that was formerly called “Principles” has been renamed “Goals.” He feels strongly that the need for specific, well-articulated regulations – and the power to back up the enforcement of those regulations – can only come from Congress.

One of the reasons that Leonard finds this lack of definition and accountability so troubling is that he is afraid that this amorphous and changeable quality will ultimately be extended to issues like farming genetically engineered salmon in the ocean. He expressed his concern about this issue in the Ocean Conservancy’s press release:

 “…the agency’s policy is strangely silent on the current controversy surrounding the Food and Drug Administration’s potential approval of the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption – an engineered version of farmed salmon. Given the extreme risk to oceans that genetically engineered fish pose, it is unacceptable that ocean farming of genetically engineered fish is not categorically excluded in the agency’s new policy…. Clearly a national debate is needed on the future of our seafood supply – including what, if any, role should be played by genetically engineered fish and fish farming in the ocean. Binding national standards – that can only emanate from Congress – is what is ultimately needed”

Dr. Richard Langan, Director, Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center at the University of New Hampshire, expresses similar concerns about the effectiveness of the policy:

“While I am somewhat encouraged by and found nothing objectionable in the NOAA draft policy statement, there is also nothing there that convinces me that anything will actually get done.  I have been involved the aquaculture “dialogue” for nearly 30 years, seen policy documents, aquaculture plans etc., however, it seems that on the ground, very little has changed.  We are still talking about whether we are going to allow domestic marine aquaculture to develop when we should be talking about where, how, and how quickly it can and should be developed.  Much of the inertia has been caused by concerns about the impacts of large-scale aquaculture production.  While we absolutely need to consider and manage for real and potential impacts, we must also consider the consequences of not moving forward, which in my opinion, will be far more damaging to our economy, the environment, and the health and welfare of the American people.  Developing a safe, healthy and robust domestic seafood supply should be a national priority.” 

How will all of this play out in the end? Will the need for stronger and better-defined regulations and enforcement be recognized and acted upon? Will the results of the next election play a significant role in this issue?

Stay tuned.

- Roz Cummins

The food pyramid is now consigned to the dustbin of history in order to make way for the new graphic depiction of how we should be eating: MyPlate. (You can follow news about MyPlate on Facebook.)

MyPlate depicts a dinner plate – alongside a glass of (presumably) low-fat milk – on which grains, fruits, vegetables, and proteins are apportioned in the same ratio as they should be in our diets. According to MyPlate, our diet should be roughly 50% vegetables and fruit and, as far as I can tell, the remaining 50% is split almost evenly between proteins and grains, but it’s a little bit hard to discern exactly what the percentage is intended to be.

 The seafood industry is excited because the new guidelines include the advice to eat seafood twice a week, a recommendation that the government made earlier this year. 

The website addresses the issue of safety regarding eating fish during pregnancy, and hasa special section on mercury in fish,as well as advisories about local fish and shellfish. (If you want to learn more about how mercury enters the food cycle, check out this video.)

Of course not everyone is in favor of tossing out the pyramid and replacing it with a plate, and some people have customized it to suit their own tastes and preferences.

Eating a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables is excellent advice, and including seafood in your diet is a good idea too. A recipe that makes the most of this dietary advice is Kakavia, a traditional Greek fisherman’s stew that contains many vegetables as well as several different kinds of fish and shellfish. I got this recipe from Father D. J. Constantelos, who enjoys it frequently and who kindly agreed to share it with us.

This recipe calls for cod. Atlantic Cod currently has either a yellow ranking (U.S. jig caught) or an orange ranking (Icelandic and U.S. bottom longline caught) or a red one (U.S. and Canada – bottom trawl), so we recommend that you select Pacific Cod instead.  Pacific Ling Cod and Alaskan Walleye Pollock are excellent green-ranked choices as well, as they have the same flaky yet dense flesh that Atlantic and Pacific Cod do, although Pacific Ling Cod has a mercury/PCB warning.

There are some great ocean-friendly shrimp options available. Canadian, pink, Alaskan spot, and U.S. Farmed shrimp are all ranked green. Shrimp from the Southeastern U.S. are ranked yellow, and farmed shrimp from Asia and Latin America earn orange rankings. Imported wild shrimp are ranked red.

Bay scallops and Peruvian Calico Scallops both have green rankings, and Icelandic and Sea Scallops are ranked as earning a yellow rating.

Clams and mussels are both green-ranked filter feeders that actually clean the water.

Enjoy this fantastic – and fantastically healthy – veggie-heavy fish stew! But please, use a bowl, not a plate. – Roz Cummins

Kakavia

By Father D. J. Constantelos

Serves 4.

Here is how I prepare Kakavia – rather frequently.  It is a very healthy and delightful meal, depending, of course, on your taste.

2 stalks of celery, sliced

3 carrots, thick slices

10 – 12 small white onions, peeled and whole

12 small red potatoes, unpeeled and whole

2 or 3 Bay leaves

4 or 5 whole pepper corns

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, whole

A few pieces of fresh dill,

½ cup extra virgin olive oil (I recommend Kalamata)

1 lb.  fish (buy thick pieces) N.B.: see recommendations above on fish that would work well in this recipe

6 to 8 shrimp

6 to 8 scallops

6 to 8 clams

10 to 12 mussels

1.) Put three to four cups of water in a large pot.  Bring to a boil.  Add the following celery, carrots, white onions, red potatoes, Bay leaves, whole peppercorns, garlic, dill, and olive oil.

2.) Let boil until the potatoes are nearly cooked. Add more water as needed. Stir the vegetables occasionally.

3.) Once the potatoes are nearly cooked, add the fish and continue to boil for four minutes.

4.) Four minutes after you put the fish in, add the shrimp, scallops, clams, and mussels.

5.) Cook for an additional three minutes. Remove the Bay leaves, then serve immediately.

One day many, many years ago I picked up a book of autobiographical essays by a young impoverished single mother. One of the essays was about her experience of applying for a grant for young impoverished single mothers and being told that she wasn’t young, impoverished, or single enough to be eligible. She was left to wonder just how impoverished and single a young mother had to be in order to be eligible for the grant.

I was left wondering the same thing about bluefin tuna after reading that NOAA has declined to assign endangered status to the few remaining bluefin that exist. Sorry, Charlie. NOAA doesn’t want to take the basic steps necessary to give you even a fighting chance of coming back from the brink.

According to their press release (which was released late on the Friday afternoon preceding a long weekend, ensuring that it could easily get neglected and be dropped from the normal news cycle), “Based on careful scientific review, we have decided the best way to ensure the long-term sustainability of bluefin tuna is through international cooperation and strong domestic fishery management,” said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “The United States will continue to be a leader in advocating science-based quotas at ICCAT, full compliance with these quotas and other management measures to ensure the long-term viability of this and other important fish stocks.”

How’s that again? You believe that “the best way to ensure the long-term sustainability of bluefin tuna is through international cooperation and strong domestic fishery management…” Well, okay, I’m with you so far, but wouldn’t “strong domestic fishery management” include declaring an obviously endangered species to be endangered? Their refusal to label bluefin as endangered is the moral equivalent of knowing that your kids are on the top floor of a burning building and deciding that the best course of action is to lie down and take a nap. Does NOAA think they’re going to get a second chance to make this decision? A “do over”? Don’t count on it.

Bluefin populations have declined by 80% since the 1970’s, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Blue Ocean Institute founder Carl Safina explains that, “One of the weaknesses of the Endangered Species Act is that it sets a floor – preventing total extinction – rather than setting a standard of abundant, viable populations. (By contrast, the Clean Water Act sets a standard: thatAmerica’s waterways must be “fishable and swimmable.”)”

One of the variables that makes any recovery of bluefin populations so dubious is that they migrate across the Atlantic and so come under the purview of many different nations’ fishing laws as well as international laws. Sadly, bluefin are poorly protected wherever they go because commercial interests call the shots.

On top of succumbing to pressure from overfishing, bluefin nurseries took a hit when the Horizon Blowout oil spill contaminated some of their spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. (See the map of their nurseries and range here.)

In his blog, Safina recounts attempts to try to protect bluefin nurseries: “…we sued the U.S. government to at least close the Gulf of Mexico spawning areas during the spawning season. We lost.”

Barry Estabrook writes in his column on the fate of bluefin tuna, “According to some estimates, 20 percent of the tuna born there last year died. ‘The Obama administration turned a blind eye to the staggering declines of Atlantic bluefin tuna in recent years,’ said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in a press release.”

NOAA states that it will review this decision by early 2013, “when more information will be available about the effects of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill, as well as a new stock assessment from the scientific arm of ICCAT.” Let’s just hope that the additional information isn’t that the bluefin are all gone.

- Roz Cummins

I didn’t always like oysters. I had one once in my youth – at a bar in Denver – not exactly a Mecca for oyster aficionados. The sad, tired, and probably homesick oyster was lackluster at best, and I decided that oysters weren’t for me. Fortunately, a few years ago, I was invited to an oyster-tasting put on by Slow Food Portland (Maine division, not Portlandia division), and I had my first truly fresh cold-water oyster. It was one of those “where have you been all my life?” moments, and it started me down the primrose path of oyster addiction.

I was fortunate to meet Rowan Jacobson at that fateful oyster tasting and I think his book A Geography of Oysters is both incredibly useful and very entertaining. In it, you will find a guide to which oysters you might like to taste based on your personality type  (it is both somewhat tongue-in-cheek and actually truly useful) and his website, oysterguide.com, has an oyster finder function that helps enthusiasts identify the places their favorite oysters grow. 

If you want to carry a handy guide to oysters with you on your iPhone, you have two choices: Oysterpedia  and Oyster Bible. If you dwell in the New York area, you can check out www.theoysterblog.com to see their guide to establishments that serve oysters  in the area.

I also really like  Consider the Oyster: A Shucker’s Field Guide, by Patrick McMurray. It has a graphic of a  tasting wheel that is very handy for detecting and familiarizing yourself with the different flavors and characteristics unique to each oyster.

Oysters  are a fabulous choice when it comes to being ocean-friendly: they are filter feeders (they filter and eat plankton in the water) and they produce negligible waste. Indeed, oysters clean the water where they are being raised and have sometimes been used to help clean polluted waters. (Of course they can’t be eaten when they have been used to clean contaminated water.)

In Rowan’s new book, Shadows on the Gulf, he discusses, among other things, the fate of oysters post-BP oil spill. You may have read in the news that the oyster beds in Louisiana were ruined by the oil spill. Well, yes and no: in order to keep oil from coming into the oyster beds, fresh water was pumped out through the oyster beds to keep the salt water – and the oil that accompanied it – at bay. The salinity in the fresh water was so much less than that of the brackish water that the oysters required that it killed the oysters. To fix this situation, the oyster beds need to be reseeded. Will BP pay to reseed them? No way. They refuse based on the technicality that it was fresh water, not oil, that harmed the beds.  The fact that the oil spill is what necessitated the release of fresh water through the beds seems not to make a difference to them.

I wish that the leadership at BP (is that an oxymoron? Is there any true leadership at BP?) would realize that any money they spend on PR is just throwing good money after bad until they own up to the consequences of their actions and set about fixing them. They need to develop both a conscience and common sense and do what’s right simply because it’s what’s right. I understand that they employ armies of lawyers who are telling them that they can’t agree to fix this problem that their actions (and inaction) created because it sets a precedent of culpability, but true leaders would ignore the advice of lawyers and do what’s right. I hope that they don’t let this opportunity slip by. It won’t come again.

In the meantime, I hope that you are feeling adventurous and want to try some oysters and/or perhaps try some varieties that are new to you. If you’ve tried some oysters in the past but didn’t enjoy them, I encourage you to give it another shot. Pick out a restaurant known for having an excellent raw bar and order three or four different kinds. Tasting a few different kinds of oysters makes for a great experience because you can pick up subtle difference between them, and you can begin to keep a little life list (written or mental) of all the oysters that you’ve tried and want to try. Bon Appetit! – Roz Cummins

Korean Grilled Shellfish video

by Roz Cummins

It’s hard to believe that Memorial Day is here already. It seems like just last week that I was cursing the snow and leaving muddy boots on a tray by the door. The Kick-off Weekend of the summer has arrived, though, so it’s time to put the boots away, drag the grill out of the basement, sit in a lawn chair, and wonder where the time went, preferably while drinking an iced tea.

In the past I’ve written about the decision tree necessary to try to figure out which fish are a good choice for grilling from a structural (can it stand up to the grill?), health (contaminants?), and environmental (ocean-friendly?) perspective. (I am happy to say that in the time since I wrote that article in 2008, swordfish are now more plentiful, but they do still have a mercury caution.)

Today, however, I am going to focus on grilling shellfish. The first time I saw somebody grillclams, oysters, and mussels directly on the grill I couldn’t believe it: I had never seen anybody do that before. It seemed like some kind of crazy magic trick. Add heat to the shellfish and they pop right open! Although crowd-pleasing and dramatic, it’s also one of the easiest ways of preparing shellfish. After all, all you need is fire, a grate, and some clams, mussels, and oysters – true “shipwrecked on a desert island” cuisine.

People who grill clams and mussels usually just put them directly onto the grill without opening them first: the heat of the grill will make them open. (Of course you want to check to make sure that they are still alive before you put them over the heat. You do this by seeing if they are shut tight, and if there are some that aren’t already closed, tap them to see if they shut. If they don’t shut right away, toss them out.)

As far as oysters go, some people like to cook them in the half shell while other put them on the grill still closed in their whole shell. Some cooks open them slightly but not all the way, letting the heat do most of the work.

Chow’s Andrew Leonard shows how he grills oysters

You may want to have some lemon, flavored butter, or cocktail sauce on hand to enhance your enjoyment of the grilled shellfish, or you might want to enjoy the smoky flavor they pick up from the grill all on its own.

Best of all, clams, mussels, and oysters are all ocean-friendly. They are filter feeders and actually clean the waters in which they are grown.

Have a great summer!

Bobby Flay grills clams

Bobby Flay grills oyster

Fish swimming past a fish window (mostly shad)

Some fish migrate between fresh and salt water in order to spawn. Fish that migrate from freshwater to saltwater and back again (called anadromous) – or the reverse (catadromous) – in order to spawn are known collectively as diadromous fish.

Anadromous fish include American Shad, Striped Bass, andSalmon. They are born in fresh water and swim downstream to the ocean to spend several years feeding and growing (a trip called out-migration) until they reach sexual maturity and then back again to freshwater to mate (a spawning run).

After being born in the river, the young fish seek out brackish water (a combination of fresh water and salty ocean water) that has the best degree of salinity for them to grow in. (The degree of salinity of the water in a certain place is determined by how far up the river the area is.) The area with the best salinity can change somewhat from season to season, but in the Hudson River, for example, young striped bass tend to do best and can therefore be found between Newburgh Bay and the Tappan Zee. Eventually, the juveniles swim out to sea and spend several years eating and growing. When they reach sexual maturity, they head back to their home waters to reproduce.

There are also fish that follow the reverse path: they are born at sea, migrate to fresh water to grow and mature, and then return to sea to spawn. These fish are called catadromous. The American Eel, found on the Atlantic coast, is catadromous: after being born in the Sargasso Sea, juveniles migrate up rivers to grow and mature before migrating back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

The spawning run is a time when fish counts are often taken. Some fish counts are done by scientists and professionals and some also rely on volunteers for help.

Some counts use fish windows to help with the counting.

- Roz Cummins

photo: Dann Blackwood and Page Valentine/USGS

I don’t know what the weather was like where you live this past winter, but here on the East Coast it was awful. The snowstorms seemed as though they’d never end and the sky was a hopeless shade of gray.

As I drove through the towns and villages of Long Island during the deep freeze, I passed multiple closed clam shacks. They looked so forlorn that they seemed more like abandoned archaeological sites than gathering places that had any sort of meaningful future. At that moment it was impossible to imagine the sound of laughter as people sat together waiting for their food or the smell of clams being fried, let alone the sweet, delicate flavor of lobster meat.

Once April arrived and the giant snow piles slowly retreated, I could see that picnic tables and benches were emerging from under the blankets of snow that had made them look like misshapen igloos. Large planters and window boxes appeared as well, and eventually some small level of human activity could be detected: one day a parking lot would be swept clean, the next day dead leaves would have been raked out from under the hedges. Tulips began to bloom in the abandoned gardens and window boxes and I finally allowed myself to believe that warm weather was truly on its way.

Now that it’s May, most of these establishments are now open. Bright red and yellow bottles of ketchup and mustard adorn the picnic tables, small signs of life as colorful and welcome as the red and yellow tulips that bloom in the planters. I see people spending afternoons and evenings lingering at the tables, eating clams and lobster rolls – and even oysters – depending on the menu.

Now that I have lobster on my mind, I have been wondering what kind of a season it will be for New England lobstermen. Last year, the lobster catch off of Rhode Island and Connecticut was down enough for a ban on lobstering to be considered. In the end, the ban was not put in place. Maine’s lobster catch, on the other hand, had been exceptionally good – record-breaking, in fact.

What’s the forecast for the coming year? According to the Boston Globe, the Maine lobster catch for this year is predicted to be an excellent one. Lobstermen are hoping to get slightly higher prices than last year to offset the increasing cost of fuel and bait.

If you’re interested in lobsters and lobstering, here are two books you might enjoy reading: The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean, by Trevor Corson, and Lobster: A Global History, by Elizabeth Townsend.

The Secret Life of Lobsters presents a thoughtful portrait of the lives of lobstermen, scientists, environmentalists and – last but not least – the lobster themselves. Corson worked as a lobsterman for two years, learning first-hand about all aspects of the endeavor. His book combines natural history and science – he reports in detail on the life the lobsters live beneath the waves, including lobster courting rituals – and he also describes the lives of the scientists who study the lobsters, their hypotheses and assumptions, and the experiments they conduct to try to understand what makes a lobster population thrive. Corson also reports on the personal lives of the scientists – decisions and sacrifices they’ve made to be where they need to be when they need to be there – and he captures the lives of the lobstermen as well. He describes what it’s like to live in a small (and quite literally insular) community, as well as chronicling the time the men spend on the water, and the choices they make trying to strike a balance between the demands of fishing and the needs of their families. The book is an excellent meditation on what it means to be part of a small, close-knit community and what it feels like to pursue a profession that can be difficult and dangerous, while also being steeped in tradition and very satisfying.

Lobster: A Global History, chronicles the history of lobster consumption from pre-literate times up to our own: this book covers a lot of territory engagingly and succinctly.

Townsend begins the book with descriptions of different lobster species – clawed and clawless – and discusses traditions of eating lobster in Stone Age Europe and ancient Peru. She also traces the history of lobster through legal documents: in 1548, the British Parliament converted Saturday into a fish day, requiring the people to eat seafood rather than meat. She writes, “Fish days were important in this century because they increased fish consumption, thereby conserving cattle, which were reserved for the navy. Fish days also spurred shipbuilding, expanding the ranks of mariners, and sparked the fishing business.”
Townsend covers Native American consumption of lobster and relates that they were relied upon as principal sources of protein and oil. She chronicles Europeans’ changing attitudes toward North American lobsters as they settled in the New World, and she quotes food historian Kathleen Curtin as saying “One of the most persistent and oft-repeated food myths is… about laws being enacted to protect prisoners/servants from eating lobster no more than three times a week – it never happened.”

Enthusiasm for dining on lobsters created a need for transporting them over ever longer distances. In the 1500’s, the Dutch built ships with tanks or wells in their holds which allowed them to transport live fish over long distances, and the English followed suit in the 1600’s, building a fleet of well-vessels that they called smacks.

People sought to preserve lobster as well. Potted lobster was made from cooked lobster covered with butter, and once sealed, this preparation could last up to a year.

As tourists began to summer in Maine, a fresh lobster dinner came to be considered an important part of the experience, and Townsend traces the history of lobster salad, clambakes, and lobster festivals.

She also covers competition between countries over lobster fishing grounds, and the controversy over whether it’s cruel to eat lobster. She relates the best ways to kill lobsters so as to minimize their suffering. She also discusses the future of lobster populations, and cites research and legislation all geared toward supporting lobsters’ continuing existence.

One of the most interesting and entertaining sections of the book is a series of recipes that are presented chronologically, from recipes for Boiled Spiny Lobster attributed to Apicus (late fourth to fifth century AD), to Pickled Lobsters (a recipe recorded by Robert May in 1671), to Anne Gibbons Gardiner’s Lobster Pie (1763), up to Curried Lobster (Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book, 1889) and current recipes for Baked Lobster Tail Souffle and Lobster Cantonese.

The book is also illustrated with interesting artwork and photographs, ranging from photos of different species of lobsters to Salvador Dali’s Lobster Telephone (1936) and PETA posters.

If you’d like to read more about lobster, here is a link to a directory of stories about lobster in the NY Times, including a list of recipes.

Here is my recipe for Lobster Salad with Tomato-Lemon Balm Dressing, as well as detailed written instructions for how to cook and break down a lobster. And here is a video featuring Jasper White, describing how to pick a lobster. Talia Bigelow, lobster biologist, shows you how to eat a lobster.

Bon Appetit!

- by Roz Cummins

Jill Silverman Hough has just published a genuinely useful – as well as beautiful – book called 100 Perfect Pairings: main dishes to enjoy with wines you love. In it, she describes the characteristics of six white wines (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Voignier, Riesling, Gewurztraminer) and six red wines (Rose, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon) in language that is clear and accessible, and she offers several recipes for main dishes that pair nicely with each wine.

In each chapter she offers recipes for vegetarian dishes and dishes made from meat or poultry and in several of the chapters she offers recipes for seafood, including some of the chapters on red wine. While it is generally true that seafood pairs well with white wine, red wine stands up to the likes of salmon and swordfish. The book begins with a chapter devoted to general advice about pairing wine with food, and then moves on to the chapters devoted to different varietals.

White Wine Pairings

In the Sauvignon Blanc chapter, she offers recipes for Smoked Trout Salad with Endive, Ricotta Salata, and Pickled Fennel; Petrale Sole with Lemon, Capers, and Croutons; Shrimp Skewers with Sauvignon Blanc-friendly Pesto; and Smoked Lemon-Soy Sea Bass (choose Black Sea Bass over Chilean Sea Bass) with Citrus Slaw. With Pinot Grigio she pairs White Wine Seafood Pasta; Fish “Burgers”with Minted Napa Cabbage Slaw (you can make these out of Halibut or Tilapia);  Aniseed-Crusted Ahi (choose pole and troll caught) with Edamame Three-Bean Salad; and Pan-seared Rosemary Rainbow Trout with Cherry Tomato Relish. Crab Salad Sandwiches are paired with Chardonnay, as is Scallop Scampi with Peas and Orzo; Grilled Grouper with ‘Cress and ‘Cado Relish (Grouper is a yellow choice and is flagged for PCBs or Mercury); and Potato-crusted Alaskan Halibut with Garlic and Tarragon.  Lobster Tails with Vanilla Drawn Butter are paired with Voignier. Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa; Seafood and Andouille Jambalaya; and Cilantro-lime Salmon are paired with Riesling. Thus endeth the white wine section.

Red Wine Pairings

Tilapia with Gazpacho Salad is paired with Rose (use easy-to-find green-ranked Tilapia from the USA), as is Roast Salmon and Potatoes with Romesco Sauce. Grilled Salmon with Rosemary Pesto is paired with Pinot Noir, and Tapenade Swordfish Skewers with Warm Edamame Bulgur Salad is paired with Syrah. (Swordfish are an ocean-friendly choice, but they have a mercury caution attached to them.)

The recipes for vegetarian, meat, and poultry dishes look delicious as well.

- Roz Cummins

Tilapia with Gazpacho Salsa

4 and 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, or more to taste

2 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press or minced

1 and 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt, divided, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided, or more to taste

7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

1 large tomato, cored, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 small cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch-dice

1/2 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/3 cup pitted good quality black olives, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Six 6-ounce tilapia fillets, about 3/4 inch thick

1.) In a small bowl combine the vinegar, garlic, paprika, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the black pepper, whisking to dissolve the salt. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Set aside. (You can prepare the dressing up to 3 days in advance, storing it covered in the refrigerator.)

2.) In a medium bowl, combine the tomato, cucmber, bell pepper, onoin, olives, and parsley. Add the dressing and toss gently. Taste, ideally with your wine, and add more vinegar, salt, and/or black pepper if you like. (You can prepare the salsa up to a day in advance, storing it covered in the refrigerator.)

3.) In each of two large nonstick skillets over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle the fish with the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Add 3 fillets to each skillet and cook until well browned and cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side. (If you don’t have two large nonstick skillets, cook the fish in batches.)

Serve the fish hot with the salsa on top.