The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch report recently labelled some south coast BC chinook and coho salmon as “red” or “not recommended” for sustainability reasons. No one has been fishing for these salmon this year so imagine our surprise at the flurry of press this report received in order to warn consumers. We actually feel these headlines do more harm than good since there are almost no commercial fisheries on the runs labelled in the report as red and 99% of the coho or chinook salmon commercially available come from runs that are not red listed.

This is not to say there is no story at all here. The decline of the Fraser River sockeye runs we discussed in this recent blog post is indicative of larger problems. Wild salmon face many threats in our oceans from warming water temperatures to disease. Threats from open pen fish farms are under constant investigation. And illegal fishing in closed areas continues to go unchecked. But legal commercial fishing is not a threat to the long term health of our wild BC salmon.

Organizations like Seafood Watch, Sea Choice, and Ocean Wise are working hard to try to simplify the very complex realities of wild seafood. And while a lot of good comes from their work, it can also unintentionally paint with brush strokes that are far too broad. Their systems are built to try and give consumers some way to understand the large and opaque industrial seafood supply chains and retailers. These broad strokes can be a great way to force government organizations like the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) into making changes when they are mismanaging stocks. But in cases where the DFO is getting it right, they can cause confusion. For instance, what good does it do to warn people not to eat fish they will not be coming across and can’t buy since the government has already banned fishing for it? One could argue it doesn’t cause any harm to err on the side of caution, but unfortunately brief press stories around this kind of report can muddy the public perception beyond the intended targets. They can also make life difficult for fishing families working hard to do the right thing, driving prices paid to fishermen for sustainable seafood even lower.

The important lesson here, as always, is that consumers deserve complete supply chain transparency. And that knowing your fishermen as you do when you are a member of a community supported fishery is one of very few ways to truly know where your fish comes from and to trust that it is environmentally and socially just. And yes – we have chinook and coho available and it is Ocean Wise recommended because it comes from areas that are bountiful and doing well. Now that’s the kind of good news headline you’re not likely to see anywhere but here!