What is the Sustainable Seafood Initiative?

The Sustainable Seafood Initiative in Charleston, SC is a group effort to promote environmentally friendly, local and sustainable seafood in restaurants, groceries, markets, and to the population in general. This important initiative will not only promote the population growth of species that have been over-fished and threatened with decimation, but will also support the local fishing industry which has been undermined by imported seafood.

The South Carolina Seafood Alliance, The South Carolina Aquarium, The South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, The South Carolina Sea Grant, Johnson and Wales University, The University of South Carolina, Baruch Institute, and many local restaurants, chefs, and seafood markets and groceries have joined together to create the Sustainable Seafood Initiative.

Sustainable seafood means that species are fished in a way that supports their future population. The fishing is managed so that there is as little environmental impact as possible and so that the fish are allowed to breed and populate at rates sufficient to guarantee their future and our future enjoyment of them.

Local restaurants who are part of this initiative have agreed to not serve the three types of fish that are currently endangered. These are sharks, orange roughy and Chilean sea bass. There are a variety of reasons why the future of these species is at risk. Chilean sea bass do not have access to great quantities of food so they are not able to grow very fast or produce many eggs. They are being caught at rates way beyond their capacity to reproduce. Orange roughy don't even become sexually mature until after 27 years, and they can live to be over 100 years old. Sharks are a little more complicated, but they have unusually long gestation periods and don't produce as many offspring as other species. They're also in high demand throughout the world for not just their flesh but also for their fins, hide, liver oil and cartilage.

Local chefs who support the Sustainable Seafood Initiative have replaced these endangered species with fresh, local sustainable species such as wreckfish, wahoo, mahimahi, amberjack, shrimp, clams and much more. Since the initiative began in 2002 they've had great success with introducing customers to local species of seafood. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise given the growing awareness that it's important to eat as fresh and locally as possible not just for a healthy lifestyle but also for a healthier environment. For more information about sustainable and local seafood click on the link for the SSI.