"seafood" news and stories

Thanks in part to our breaking story last month, Sinju Restaurant in Portland, Ore., has removed bluefin tuna from the menu at all three Sinju locations.

According to a story in The Oregonian, the sushi restaurant made the change after being pressured by customers and environmental groups when Guido Rahr, president of the Wild Salmon Center went public about being banned from the restaurant after speaking to Sinju's management about the fish's appearance on the menu.

"I felt it was important for Sinju to know that this is not just another declining species, but perhaps the most high profile endangered fish species on the earth," Rahr wrote in a letter to Sinju in August.

Jae en Woo, who spoke to The Oregonian on behalf of her father who owns the restaurant said, "We should have been more up to date on this issue of sustainability and how it lives in the minds of Portlanders. I know this sounds really irresponsible, and I know aquariums often have literature about what's sustainable and what's not, but you're living the bubble of running your own business you're largely unaffected by these issues until a situation like this comes up."

No need to whip out your Seafood Watch app at the Whole Foods Market fish counter anymore. The national retailer just applied the same color-coded sustainability-rating program for wild-caught fish throughout their 298 stores, and even better, have committed to eliminating red-listed wild fish from their counters by Earth Day 2013.

Wild-caught red-rated species will remain for sale at Whole Foods for the time being, but will be prominently labeled. Guiding customers towards making better seafood choices are fish labeled with a green rating, including wild Alaskan salmon, Pacific halibut or Dungeness crab. Species that will be phased out include grouper, monkfish, skate and red snapper.

In making the move, Whole Foods Market has chosen to partner with Blue Ocean Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Both organizations evaluate seafood and assign a color-coded rating to fish ranging from mackerel to tuna, based on species abundance, habitat impacts, fishery management, bycatch and more. It's not the retailer's first seafood partnership. In 1999, the chain began working with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild-caught seafood.

Each week, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• A taste of the tropics in your kitchen -- palm trees, not included.
• Take a culinary cruise through Maui.
• Is duck fetus egg an edible treat?
• Wind down tomato season with this tart.
• Crashing waves pair well with coastal comestibles like grilled sardines.
• While working on that tan, match these LA chefs with their restaurants.

In a city renowned for one of America's most distinct and vibrant food cultures, a way of life is in danger: One by one, New Orleans restaurants are beginning to drop oysters from their menus, and it's not a matter of food safety.

"I wish we could change people's perception about our seafood," Gerald Amato, owner of Mother's Restaurant lamented this morning. "We had one customer say the catfish tasted oily. Catfish is pond-raised! It's just perception," he stressed. "Seafood has never been tested more than it is now and we can't sell it if it's not safe."

It comes down to supply. Amato pointed to an empty pan in the kitchen next to another heaped with pink Gulf shrimp. "That's where the oysters would go. We're supposed to get a shipment in tomorrow," Amato said. His oysters are supplied from P&J Oyster Company, the longest running oyster house in America, who earlier this summer was forced to lay off the majority of its shuckers due to supply shortages for the first time in 134 years.

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.