Last month FishWise attended the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation's (ISSF) first Environmental Stakeholder Committee Meeting in San Diego. The ISSF is a global partnership among leaders in science, the tuna industry and the World Wildlife Fund whose mission is to undertake science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing bycatch and promoting ecosystem health.

The tropical and temperate areas of the world's oceans hold a variety of tuna species including bluefin, yellowfin, blackfin, bigeye, albacore, skipjack, and tongol. All of these are ecologically important, beautiful, and powerful open-ocean fishes, but those that most often make it to the American consumer are albacore, skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye (the first two often canned 'light' or 'chunk', the later two often fresh or frozen 'ahi').

Unfortunately, as human populations increase and appetites for tuna grow, many of these species are becoming overfished and fishing impacts such as bycatch of sea turtles, sharks, and a range of untargeted fish are increasing. This is threatening the health of open-ocean ecosystems and the livelihoods of the fishermen and the seafood businesses that depend on them.       

Because tuna are highly migratory, pelagic species, stocks are often shared between multiple countries and the largely ungoverned expanses of the high seas. This poses a difficult and unique challenge to sustainable management because several countries must agree on how many fish can be caught and who can catch them. Although Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO's) have been established to manage tuna in each of the world's oceans, the short-term political and economic interests of many appointees trump the advice of scientific advisers. This has resulted in continued overcapacity, where too many boats are fishing for too few fish. If something doesn't change soon, the stocks will collapse.

BriarPatch Co-op, a FishWise partner since 2007, is a cooperatively owned business located in Grass Valley, in the visually breathtaking Sierra foothills, in Nevada County. Established in 1976 from a "food buying club" which was located in an unheated warehouse by the Grass Valley airport, the business is now located in a state of the art building, certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED® program for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Over the Labor Day weekend, William Wall, our Business Partnership Program Manager visited the store and talked to customers about sustainable seafood. BriarPatch Co-op offers fresh and sustainable seafood choices like Wild Alaskan Salmon and U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish, and their knowledgeable and enthusiastic seafood counter staff led by manager, Robert Schultz, can answer all of your sustainable seafood questions.

William also wanted to make special mention of the BriarPatch Co-op customers he had the opportunity to meet on the day who were "amongst the most well versed and engaged" he has encountered.

Selling healthy and sustainably produced food is a core objective of the BriarPatch Co-op, and their partnership with FishWise ensures that all fresh seafood in the store is labeled according to science-based sustainability criteria.

BriarPatch Co-op should be congratulated for their ongoing commitment to providing sustainable seafood to their customers and improving ocean health.