My oldest is a picky eater and my youngest is far more adventurous so I love it when one or both of them are willing to try something new, something I’ve never even tried. Several months ago we took them out to a “fancy” restaurant and my husband ordered the Chilean Seabass that was the chef’s special for the night. Both kids loved it.
Well Friday was my husband’s 35th birthday and so the kids knew we were going back to the restaurant. All week my daughter had been talking about how she was going to have the Chilean Seabass again. Her face lit up when the waitress mentioned the chef’s specials and the seabass was once again on the menu. She ordered it and quickly devoured it (sharing a few bites with her brother, father and myself).
However, I started to wonder if there were any sustainability issues with Chilean Seabass and sure enough it has an avoid rating for a few reasons, including high mercury content. Here is some information from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood WATCH page on Chilean Seabass:
“Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has depleted some populations of Chilean seabass. In addition, some Chilean seabass is caught using unmodified bottom longlines, which hook and drown thousands of seabirds each year, most notably endangered albatross.
Portions of the Chilean seabass fishery – the South Georgia toothfish longline fishery and the Ross Sea toothfish longline fishery – are certified as sustainable to the standard of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). These certified fisheries are not specifically evaluated in the Seafood Watch report and are not covered under the general “Avoid” recommendation.”
With that, I was off to the MSC website’s “Where to Buy” section. I didn’t see the restaurant listed so I started digging further. The restaurant we visited was Fleming’s Steakhouse, which is part of OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC. The same company owns Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s and Carraba’s Italian Grill.
I spent quite some time searching and wasn’t able to find anything about whether the source of the Chilean Seabass was from one of the acceptable fisheries. I did find the following information on the Bonefish Grill website about OSI’s commitment to sustainable seafood:
How does Bonefish Grill ensure that they are using environmentally safe seafood?
We have always supported and will continue to support controlled fishing regulations or laws that promote the sustainability of all fish species. It is in our best interest to do so as this directly affects the future viability of our company. We also utilize cutting-edge Aquaculture to help take the pressure off of commercial fishing. We are very “green” when it comes to sustainability issues. For more information on sustainability and overfishing, please click here. Key species of concern include Sea Bass (.pdf) and Grouper.”
The links go to external sites, however, and don’t give me any information about the source of my daughter’s seabass. So now I think I will contact the company’s corporate office directly and see if I can find a direct answer. Until then, no more seabass for Ava.
Photo: kphua/Flickr
