Brilliant! THIS Is the Kind of Thinking Ocean-Friendly Business Will Be Built On!

"A clever melding of wild harvesting and aquaculture, using a single piece of equipment."

According to Trevor Corson's blog,  Massachusetts lobstermen are experimenting with using baskets of oysters to weight down their traps, instead of the bricks they usually use. In overworked corporate parlance, this is a great example of "synergy".

"Heaviness is what you need for a lobster trap to sink to the bottom of the sea and stay there," says Corson, author of The Secret Life of Lobsters and  The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice. "When I worked as a lobsterboat crewman in Maine, numerous winter days were spent outfitting new traps with heavy bricks."

But bricks are not the only things that are heavy. The Massachusetts lobstermen are part of a pilot study in which they are replacing bricks with baskets of oysters, which will grow bigger while their weight helps keep the trap sitting on the bottom. Later, the lobstermen can harvest and sell the big oysters they’ve grown, along with the lobsters they’ve been catching.

If this works, I can see a past generation of lobstermen thumping their foreheads in "I coulda had a V8" fashion at the gorgeous simplicity of this idea. In addition to providing a new revenue stream, filter-feeding mollusks like oysters, mussels, and clams do double duty by helping to clean up the oceans.

The success of this strategy is by no means guaranteed:

"It partly depends how well the lobsters and the oysters get along in the trap," Corson says. 'Initial reports are that the lobsters are a little less inclined to walk inside."

But it demonstrates a way of thinking that has grown all too uncommon. I wish the lobstermen, the lobsters, and the mollusks the best of luck in their collaboration.

New Year, New Opportunities

I've been a bit remiss the past few months in attending to The Sea Suite. My missing persons work, combined with family and job responsibilities and more than a bit of emotional turmoil in the second half of 2009, forced some important choices -- and also provided some much-needed motivation.

Through it all, I have been having conversations with activists, scientists and entrepreneurs and have come away more convinced than ever that the problems facing our oceans (which means our planet) not only can be solved by informed, engaged consumers and businesses but can only be solved by informed, engaged consumers and businesses. Of course, there is a role for government in bringing about positive change; but the more I have seen of government in action (or, should I say "government inaction"?) the past 8 months, the more I have come to believe that, without a transformation of the values that inform our decisions about what we buy and sell, our governments' solutions to the planet's problems not only will be ineffectual -- they will prove truly harmful.

Here is where positive change will happen -- in places like this, where people who already understand and care about the issues facing our world articulate those issues and share their ideas and strategies for solving them. Delegating and deferring responsibility to government agencies equals accepting our own helplessness and putting our faith in bureaucratic structures that continue to fail us at every turn.

In 2010, I resolve to reaffirm my commitment to promoting ocean-friendly business, my little niche. I hope like-minded people out there will join me in this pursuit and share their wisdom. Opportunities abound -- let's seize them.

In Case You Missed It: Seafood Watch's "Super Green" List

When I first started trying to choose seafood according to the Monterey Bay AquariumSeafood Watch list, I thought it was awfully restrictive. Over time, however, I began to wish for a clearer, even more restrictive list that would make it easier to choose my seafood based both on the impact on ocean health and my family's health. Well, the aquarium has come through. In their own words:

"The Monterey Bay Aquarium has identified seafood that is "Super Green," meaning that it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The Super Green list highlights products that are currently on the Seafood Watch "Best Choices" (green) list, are low in environmental contaminants and are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.

"This effort draws from experts in human health, notably scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The Monterey Bay Aquarium will continue to work with these organizations to balance the health and environmental attributes of seafood.

"The Super Green list includes seafood that meets the following three criteria:

* Low levels of contaminants (below 216 parts per billion [ppb] mercury and 11 ppb PCBs)
* The daily minimum of omega-3s (at least 250 milligrams per day [mg/d])
* Classified as a Seafood Watch "Best Choice" (green)

The best of the best (as of October 2009)
Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)
Mussels (farmed)
Oysters (farmed)
Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)
Rainbow Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)
Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)

Other Healthy "Best Choices"
Arctic Char (farmed)
Bay Scallops (farmed)
Crayfish (farmed, from the U.S.)
Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
Pacific Cod (longline-caught, from Alaska)"

Watch Sigourney Weaver Stay on Message With "Acid Test"

I am no fan of TV news for so many reasons, and this interview on Fox provides such a great example of why. Watch the hosts try to get Sigourney Weaver to promote her upcoming sci-fi flick - Avatar - and watch her skillfully keep on message with her much more important project: Acid Test, which seeks to educate the world on the problem of ocean acidification.

Why Does Sustainability Stop at the Shoreline?

I recently had the opportunity to dine at one of my favorite restaurants in Annapolis, Md. -- at least it had been my favorite when I lived there 25 years ago (ouch!): The Cafe Normandie. Some nights I still dream of the cafe's tomato bisque, which was the height of affordable luxury for me during my college days.

The cafe had long since changed location and ownership, but I had heard the bisque was as to-die-for as ever, so Lyn and I decided have lunch there. The first thing to greet me upon walking in the door was a plaque from Sustainable Annapolis recognizing the cafe's sustainability record.

Joy!

Midway between my tomato & crabmeat bisque (adding crab was not an option 25 years ago - so far, so good!) and my Caesar salad, I took the opportunity to quiz the manager on the restaurant's sustainability accomplishments. He proudly told me about how the cafe's commitment to sustainability predated the existence of Sustainable Annapolis; how their vehicles used bio-diesel and all kitchen waste was composted; and even their drinking straws were made of compostable, corn-based plastic from Eco-Products. There were more laudable aspects of the cafe's sustainability strategy that I don't remember (I was there for lunch and didn't have my handy-dandy digital recorder). The next step, he said, was going to be solar panels on the roof.

Duly impressed, I asked how the restaurant's sustainability commitment extended to its seafood procurement practices. I might as well have asked him why glurp always relminizes. There was a moment of silent blinking as he processed the question, then he proceeded to tell me how all their seafood was purchased fresh every day to ensure quality and freshness. The idea that there were overfished species that ought to be off limits did not seem to be part of his sustainability narrative.

This is not surprising. Until fairly recently, I was as ignorant as the average Joe or Jane about the issues of overfishing, by-catch, etc. For most people and businesses, seafood sustainability is simply not part of the conversation. This is particularly sad in the case of Annapolis, a city by the water with more seafood restaurants than you can shake a stick at. If they could take a strong position on seafood sustainability, they would be a shining example.

Sustainable Annapolis will be hearing from the Sea E O. Stay tuned.