Here’s a look at this week’s must-read SeafoodSource news stories and commentaries:
• Malaysia, long dormant in Southeast Asia’s massive aquaculture industry, is taking a measured approach to fish farming, learning from its neighbors’ successes and struggles. The elements for success are all there. Check out SeaFood Business Associate Editor James Wright’s “At last, Malaysia embraces aquaculture” commentary.
• The world’s largest natural foods retailer this week launched science-based sustainability ratings for wild-caught seafood, based on recommendations from the Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium. Whole Foods Market, which operates nearly 300 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, claimed that it was the first national grocer to do so.
• A big study on the importance of wild fisheries to the global population and economy was released by the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre this week. Among the subject the Pew-funded study tackled was fishing subsidies, which “encourage fisheries to bring in larger catches, contributing to unsustainable fishing practices over the long term,” said the study’s authors.
• Atlantic cod is often dubbed the poster child of overfishing, sometimes unfairly. This week, World Wildlife Fund defended the Barents Sea cod fishery as sustainable and urged retailers in Germany, the United States and Canada not to drop all Atlantic cod products because of sustainability concerns.
• SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Christine Blank had an interesting conversation with Restaurants Unlimited’s Scott Smith this week. The company’s Newport Bay and Newport Seafood Grill restaurants in Portland, Ore., held a unique day-long promotion tagged “Name Your Own Price” allowing guests who ordered the Alaskan Cod Fish and Chips to name the price they would like to pay for the entrée. The dish averaged only USD 3.14, but the restaurants’ comparable store sales for the day were up 93 percent and its sales of appetizers, cocktails and desserts were up eight-fold.
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