Recently, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch – a guide for helping consumers make sustainable fish choices – threw an obstacle at wild steelhead when they designated commercially harvested wild steelhead from Washington’s coast as a sustainable fish choice, labeling it a “Good Alternative”. This designation could be the nail in the coffin for the sharply declining wild steelhead populations in famed Olympic Peninsula rivers like the Hoh, Queets, and Bogachiel.
It is absurd that Seafood Watch and their partners such as Whole Foods Market would label these fisheries a “Good Alternative”. Not only does this label threaten these famed wild steelhead populations, but it also misleads well-intentioned consumers who will unknowingly purchase a threatened icon spiraling towards an endangered listing.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION at wildsteelheadcoalition.org and tell Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program to remove the “Good Alternative” designation for Olympic Peninsula wild steelhead.
I sent an e-mail last week and received this response:
Hello Jason,
Thank you for sharing your concern and feedback.
Seafood Watch makes every effort to ensure its reports reflect accurate scientific information. To that end, we welcome ongoing contact with tribal representatives, conservation groups and management authorities regarding current conservation efforts, recreational harvest restrictions and other important factors that could necessitate any change to the current rating.
In fact, this process has already yielded information that came out since the assessment was completed. That new information (low returns in the Hoh River in 2016) may lead to a change in rating for that river.
The updated recommendations follow. Also, please know that a yellow Good Alternative rating doesn’t mean “sustainable” but, rather, there are issues people should be aware of before deciding to purchase.
AVOID: Steelhead from the Chehalis River
GOOD ALTERNATIVE: Steelhead from the Humptulips River, Quillayute River, Queets River and Quinault River.
UNDER REVIEW: Steelhead from the Hoh River
Any new data you have is appreciated and can be sent to us at seafoodwatch@mbayaq.org.
In the meantime, the full scientific reports behind our recommendations are publicly available at our website under the specific rating.
Sincerely,
Peter Adame
Seafood Watch Engagement Coordinator
Monterey Bay Aquarium
886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940
www.montereybayaquarium.org
Our mission is to inspire conservation of the ocean.