Seattle, Wash.-based Un-Cruise Adventures recently made global headlines when it became the first cruise company to commit to sourcing 100 percent sustainable seafood. While restaurants, colleges and others have made similar commitments with Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program and other schemes, other cruise lines have not committed to sustainable sourcing.
Un-Cruise, which operates seven small ships and will have nine ships operating by 2016, committed to serving only “best choice” and “good alternative” seafood as designated by Seafood Watch.
SeafoodSource caught up with Dani Barney, director of hotel operations for Un-Cruise, to find out more about the company’s seafood sourcing initiatives.
Blank: Why did you want Un-Cruise to commit to serving only sustainable seafood?
Barney: Given the areas in which we operate, such as Alaska, Seattle and British Columbia, we have always been dedicated to sustainable fisheries and being very careful about our menu choices. Around 90 percent of the seafood we served up to this point was sourced in Alaska. The Seafood Watch program was an opportunity for us as a business to make a greater commitment, not just in Alaska but all the areas we operate.
One of the great things about Seafood Watch is that, even though I consider myself pretty versed on sourcing good products, my knowledge has been increased. There are a lot of farming efforts being made to help with sustainability. And Seafood Watch helps us to know about things like Dungeness crab sustainability. If the numbers aren’t sustainable, they will point us in a different direction. That is knowledge we want to have as a company and we want to be flexible.
Blank: Will you be sourcing more farmed seafood?
Barney: There haven’t been any big changes in Alaska, but as we move our operations down to Hawaii, Baja and the Sea of Cortez – those seasons don’t begin until November – we will have a lot of opportunity to make a lot of menu choices for those itineraries.
Blank: How much fresh seafood do you source?
Barney: We serve a lot of seafood. Each evening, we feature a “From the Sea” dish on each of our vessels. It is a 6-ounce to 8-ounce serving. Just from one small salmon vendor in Alaska, Taku River Reds, we purchased 5,100 pounds of salmon last year. On our Alaska cruises, we will occasionally be joined by an oyster farmer who brings oysters on the boat. During Dungeness crab season, we buy live crabs from a local fisherman.
Blank: How will your sourcing change now that you are working with Seafood Watch?
Barney: We have been really lucky to have some great vendors for the areas we are operating in right now. And Sysco is [already] very committed to program. They disqualify things that aren’t “green” or “yellow” on the Seafood Watch lists, so they don’t even show up as an option for our chefs to order.
However, shrimp is a real popular menu item for our guests and there are a lot of places farm-raising shrimp that aren’t doing well. There are good shrimp farms out there, but at this point in time, I’m not comfortable going that route with shrimp until people get more experience. In some cases, wild shrimp are being overfished. One of the changes I have made to the menus for this summer is that we will only serve Alaska spot prawns or Alaska coonstripe shrimp. There is a 35 to 40 percent premium on those shrimp, so the cost is quite a bit more than before. But we want to have our menus be fluid to the time of year and where the fish stocks are at.
Blank: Are you concerned about the higher costs of sourcing certain items like shrimp?
Barney: It takes a commitment from the very top and we have the CEO’s full support. We are walking the talk. We are also trying to buy local as much as possible. We really want to support the communities in which we operate.
