"Fishing" news and stories

Sophisticated jeweler Tiffany & Co. and the fishing community of Bristol Bay, Alaska, may seem worlds apart, but the famed retailer is just one of 50 jewelers that have pledged not to source gold from the controversial Pebble mine project being proposed in the region. (Click here for a full list of jewelers.)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the mine holds one of the world's largest undeveloped deposits of copper and gold. Unfortunately for the 30 million or so sockeye salmon that spawn there each summer, those valuable minerals are located in the area's headwaters. For nearly four years, fishermen and environmentalists have been at odds with mining companies Anglo American PLC and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. over the area's natural resources.

"This is the largest, healthiest remaining salmon runs in the world," says commercial fisherman and sustainable seafood consultant Amy Grondin. "Fish from Bristol Bay have been returning here for 9,000 years. They're a sustainable natural resource. Minerals are also a natural resource, but they're not renewable."

There are plenty of signs that chefs and seafood lovers continue to wrestle with whether to serve and eat fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Many consumers have safety concerns, despite repeated assurances by the federal government and seafood promotion officials. Stories of illegal fishing haven't helped to bolster confidence either. According to FoodSafetyNews.com, more than a dozen catches have been dumped at sea because fishing had been taking place in closed waters. The result? Once bustling restaurants like Snapper's Seafood in Biloxi, Miss. are now painfully short on customers.

But many say that Thursday's move by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will go a long way to ease the safety concerns of eaters.

NOAA announced it was reopening over 26,000 square miles of the closed Gulf area to commercial and recreational fishing. Why? Because according to their data, no oil spill has been observed in the area since mid-June. Additionally, fish caught in the area and tested by experts have shown no signs of contamination. The reopened area is approximately 190 miles southeast of the Deepwater/BP well, with most fishing occurring 220 miles from the BP site.

Move over Asian carp, you're not the only pesky species to be eyed by the seafood industry as a potential food source. Officials in Virginia have set their sights on the homely cownose ray, whose population has exploded, in part because of a sharp decline in their natural predator, the inland coastal shark. The population boom is bad news for valuable Chesapeake oysters, clams and scallops. Hungry rays have been known to wipe out entire shellfish beds with their powerful crushing jaws.

Mike Hutt, executive director for the Virginia Marine Products Board has been working to develop a market for the red-fleshed cownose ray (renamed a more appealing Chesapeake Ray), but don't expect it to taste like its white-fleshed cousin, skate.

"It's not flaky, and it has a texture and tastes closer to veal or beef," says Hutt.

For you eaters who avoid farm-raised salmon and instead seek out wild-caught varieties, your job just got a little more complicated.

According to The Oregonian, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program has assigned a red "avoid" recommendation to wild-caught California and Oregon salmon, based on continued low levels of salmon returning to the Sacramento River. While that advice may seem clear cut, the change in recommendations can be confusing.

The avoid rating for Oregon salmon applies only to fish caught south of Cape Falcon. It does not apply to the entire state of Oregon. That's because there are two different salmon stocks being fished on the Pacific coast -- those that spawn in the Sacramento River, where stock levels have been troubled in recent years; and salmon fished from the Columbia River, thought to have moderately healthy population levels.

Chicago-based chef Phillip Foss of Lockwood Restaurant and Bar has emerged as champion of a highly unlikely, much maligned fish: the Asian carp.

Originally imported to the U.S. in the 1970s to clean catfish ponds, the fish eventually escaped and have been working their way up the Mississippi river, multiplying and crowding out native species by devouring large quantities of plankton and algae. Astounding jumpers, they're known to leap from the water, frequently breaking jaws and loosening teeth of fishermen who get in their way.

In an attempt to control the carp, state and federal agencies have tried everything from using rotenone to poison the fish, to electric barriers designed to keep them from invading the Great Lakes. So serious is the threat, that in February, the Obama administration announced a $78 million carp control plan.

Chef Foss, however, believes the answer is found on our dinner plates instead, and is using his fine dining pulpit to preach the message.