Hey Slow Food Restaurants!
Serve a Northwest favorite and
do your part to save wild salmon
Photo: Nick Hall
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Slow Food Seattle

Greetings!

Slow Food Seattle is partnering with Trout Unlimited to celebrate our nation's largest wild salmon fishery during Savor Bristol Bay Week: July 4-10. Bristol Bay's salmon and story are coming back to the Northwest during the peak of the fishing season. You can be a part of the celebration by featuring Bristol Bay salmon on your menu as well as helping educate your guests about Bristol Bay, its wild salmon and the people and places that make Bristol Bay so unique. As a chef who makes food purchasing decisions for thousands of diners, you wield a lot of power in the seafood marketplace as well as in the education of your clientele on their food choices. That's why we hope that you'll join us during Savor Bristol Bay week and support our efforts to save Bristol Bay.
Photo: Nick Hall
Bristol Bay Fishing Boat

Some of you may already familiar with Savor Bristol Bay Week from last summer's campaign. You may be thinking, "Stop right there! This is easy - where do I buy that beautiful sockeye?!" 

If you've already decided that you'd like to feature Bristol Bay salmon on your menu, please contact Slow Food Seattle Board member Amy Grondin by June 15, 2010.

Chefs Kevin Davis & Anthony Polizzi; Photo: Connie Adams
Chefs Kevin Davis & Anthony Polizzi
Amy can answer any questions you may have about finding a Seattle seafood distributor with wild Bristol Bay Salmon, about the fishery or wild salmon in general. Slow Food Seattle will make sure you are included on the list of participating restaurants that we distribute to our membership. Slow Food Seattle and Trout Unlimited want to give you the spotlight that you deserve through our outreach and press efforts this summer.

Read on to learn more about why it is so important to support the wild salmon fisheries of Bristol Bay and the fishermen who rely on the health of this salmon run.

Why we need to build awareness:

Several foreign mining companies are proposing one of the world's largest gold and copper mines ("Pebble") in the headwaters of Bristol Bay's most productive salmon rivers, some of the most productive wild salmon rivers left in the world. If the Pebble mine were to go in, the Bristol Bay watershed would be exposed to not only the chemicals used at the mine site, but pollutants associated with copper mining specifically (e.g. acid mine drainage). This introduction of chemicals and pollutants would alter Bristol Bay's delicate freshwater systems, which could harm the freshwater food chain and salmon survival rates. The loss of Bristol Bay's sockeye would not only be disastrous for the dozens of Alaska Native communities who have lived a subsistence lifestyle in Bristol Bay for thousands of years, but would also leave over 4,000 commercial fishermen and processors without work.  The loss of Bristol Bay's salmon fishery would also create ripples in the seafood marketplace as it the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, contributing 40% of the world's sockeye salmon supply. 

What You Can Do:
  1. Buy and serve Bristol Bay salmon.
    When you feature Bristol Bay salmon (the majority of which is sockeye) on your menu, you are investing in Bristol Bay's fishery and voting with your dollars for Bristol Bay.
    Photo: Nick Hall
    Bristol Bay Salmon
    Doing so shows your customers and our nation's decision makers that you want Bristol Bay's wild salmon to be protected so that you can continue to buy and serve it to your guests.

    Ask your local distributor to help get you Bristol Bay sockeye salmon this summer, or see the list of Bristol Bay seafood processors and direct marketers that are committed to the protection of Bristol Bay and producing beautiful Bristol Bay salmon products each year. In return, Trout Unlimited, Chefs Collaborative, and Slow Food Seattle will ensure that Northwest diners know what restaurants they can go to for Bristol Bay wild salmon during Savor Bristol Bay week.

  2. Educate your staff and clientele.
    Share     Bristol Bay's story with your staff and clientele by telling them where the salmon is from and why eating it is a way of protecting it. Help make your diners not only Bristol Bay salmon consumers, but Bristol Bay salmon advocates as well. Trout Unlimited has Bristol Bay table tents, booklets, salmon recipe cards, and other outreach materials available for distribution (contact Amy Grondin to coordinate delivery/shipment of these materials). For more information about Bristol Bay's salmon fishery, download Vote With Your Fork for Bristol Bay.

  3. Sign on.
    Please join our growing list of chefs from around the country who are telling President Obama that they want to see Bristol Bay's salmon fishery protected and sign a letter that Trout Unlimited, chefs, and Bristol Bay representatives will be delivering to the White House at the end of this year. You can either sign online or send your information to Elizabeth Dubovsky.

  4. Learn more.
    Become educated about Bristol Bay and what's at stake. Learn ways you and your guests can take action and stay informed: www.savebristolbay.org or www.whywild.org. For more scientific information and dates related to Bristol Bay and the proposed Pebble mine, then please visit: www.pebblescience.org.
We all know that wild Pacific salmon is a food source that cannot be replaced. Wild salmon nourish us, our ecosystems, and our cultures year after year. That's why we hope that you will help us Savor Bristol Bay this July and celebrate this exceptional and irreplaceable wild salmon fishery.

AGcontactIf you have questions or would like to talk about participating in the Savor Bristol Bay Campaign, contact Amy Grondin at 206.295.4931.

Thanks for your consideration and for all that you already do to promote healthy and sustainable food by being a Slow Food Restaurant.