Fishy tales: stories outside Stav Hall’s policy

We are fortunate that Bon Appétit provides our food service. Their dedication to purchasing seafood from sustainable fisheries and partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium has set a laudable standard that shows concern for the state of our oceans and fisheries.

St. Olaf's Bon Appétit account purchases seafood from the "Best Choices" or "Good Alternatives" lists in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guidelines. "That is, except for the lutefisk during Christmas Fest," said Randy Clay, Board Manager of Bon Appétit.

Salmon is the biggest seafood item they purchase. It comes from Dave Rogotzke of Simple Gifts Syrup and Salmon in Duluth, Minn. Rogotzke has been fishing wild Alaskan salmon in Bristol Bay for 25 years.  


What does this mean for Oles? Unlike wild salmon, farmed fish eat fishmeal made of highly concentrated, ground-up, smaller fish. Farmed fish are also unsustainably harvested and are polluted with mercury and other harmful contaminants like Polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic compound, which accumulate as they ascend the food chain. It also means that the fish we eat here are abundant in the wild, and that our food system is not contributing to further depletion of vulnerable marine life.  


Outside Stav Hall, we must be conscientious consumers of seafood to avoid supporting systems detrimental to precious biodiversity and aquatic life, like aquacultures. Aquaculture is the practice of farming aquatic organisms in which private or corporate owners intervene in the rearing process to enhance fish yields.

The idealistic goal of aquaculture was to take pressure off wild marine populations, but the resulting industry has far from alleviated the rampant overfishing and exploitation of the oceans. Inbreeding, escapes and disease can reduce genetic diversity and decrease the fitness of surrounding wild fish populations.

Aquaculture also requires a lot of input to feed the farmed fish. Food comes in the form of other fish further down on the food chain, known as "trash" or "reduction" fish. For every 2.2 lbs. of high-protein fishmeal produced, 10 lbs. of smaller fish are used.

The heavy reliance of aquaculture on wild fish for feed poses a serious threat to marine ecosystems, which depend on these small fish to sustain them.

Fishmeal fodder is an essential part of the oceanic food chain. Moreover, these smaller fish are often harvested by incredibly damaging means like bottom trawling, a process in which weighted nets are dragged along the ocean floor.

This process often disrupts and harms the fragile habitats on the seafloor and catches vast amounts of unwanted aquatic life. The waste means aquaculture practices actually consume much more fish protein than they produce. 


Another form of waste, from the fish themselves, creates more environmental hazards. In net-pen salmon farming, especially, farmers pen salmon:  the aquatic equivalent to feed lots. The salmon release concentrated amounts of fish waste into the water. These excess nutrients degrade water quality and facilitate the transmission of disease to native aquatic populations.

We tend to think of our consumption choices as individual and ineffectual, but do not see that, as members of the St. Olaf community, we are part of a 3000 person conglomerate supporting sustainable seafood harvesting.

Our sheer numbers have an impact; we provide positive economic incentive to ocean-friendly seafood operations, and we send the message to unsustainable fish farmers that their practices are not acceptable as the status quo. We also set an example for other individuals and food services: the new standard for seafood is a strictly sustainable standard.

When Bon Appétit purchases food from independent, local producers like Rogotzke, St. Olaf becomes a part of a greater story, the story of an ever-growing local, sustainable food movement. It's stories like Bon Appétit's work with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Dave Rogotzke's salmon, the student-run STOGROW organic farm, Thousand Hills Cattle Co. in Cannon Falls and the myriad other innovative ways Bon Appétit does food service that put us on the precipice of this movement.

You can do your part this summer by thinking carefully about your seafood purchases. Pick up a wallet-sized Seafood Watch Sustainable Seafood Guide by the comment cards outside of Stav Hall and munch sustainably.
 

Olivia Schares ‘10 (schares@stolaf.edu) is from Cedar Falls, Iowa. She majors in environmental studies and Asian studies.