Local restaurateurs join petition to stop over-fishing of the species until populations rebound. Some say it’s a ruse to lower fish prices.
By Rachelle Kuchta/Special to The Malibu Times
They use a fake name, they could be completely off the radar in five years and their performance is causing a major stir nationwide.
No, we’re not talking about your favorite Hollywood scene-stealers.
These newsmakers are the Chilean sea bass.
The trendy fish has recently become a touchy issue throughout the Southern California region, including Malibu, where many restaurateurs have decided to remove it from their menus due to a steep decline in fish size, an increase in market price and a desire to increase awareness that the species is in trouble.
According to the World Wildlife Federation, Chilean sea bass is over-fished due to illegal activities and poor regulation and may become endangered if demands don’t ease.
According to the National Environmental Trust (NET), 80 percent of Chilean sea bass are caught by pirate fishermen and illegally sold.
The Gray Whale Restaurant and the Saddle Peak Lodge joined more than 100 Los Angeles and Orange County restaurants in late May in signing a nationwide petition entitled “Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass.”
The petition was started in February in San Francisco by NET and the Antarctica Project, and has spread to restaurants in nearly a dozen cities nationwide.
In signing this petition, restaurants state they will refrain from serving the fish until its populations have stabilized and better safeguards are in place to protect the fish from probable commercial extinction.
“I feel strongly that I am on the right side of the fence,” said Gerhard Tratter, Saddle Peak Lodge managing partner. “There are many species out there that are equally delicious that can fill the plate just as well.”
The Malibu Reel Inn took Chilean sea bass off its menu a few months ago, but General Manager Kim Ruge is still convinced the deep-water fish is the “Cadillac of fishes.”
“Nothing compares to it,” she said.
Mahi mahi, black cod, bassa sole, whitefish, halibut, New Zealand snapper and New Zealand bluenose sea bass are fish being used to serve as replacements for Chilean sea bass at several restaurants.
But fishing company owner Glenn Lund says these restaurateurs are misinformed.
“Taking Chilean sea bass off the menus is not going to make a difference,” said Lund, who owns Ocean West in Los Angeles and San Diego Limited in Chile.
Lund said he is outraged about how many restaurants are “following the herd like a bunch of sheep.”
“They don’t realize what the environmentalists are trying to do,” he contends.
Lund said he has two theories about the movement to boycott Chilean sea bass. One, “Environmentalists want to stop all fishing worldwide. Who are they to say that no one should take fish out of the ocean?”
His second theory is chefs and restaurant owners are “trying to create controversy because they would much rather buy salmon at $3 per pound than Chilean sea bass for $15 per pound.”
Lund said there should be more data on the location of the canyons that Chilean sea bass inhabit and how many canyons there are we are unaware of in order to render this species over-fished.
His conclusion: “The prices are going to plunge and they’ll put it back on the menu to make money.”
Chilean sea bass was unheard of until a decade ago, when Chilean marketers changed its name from Patagonian toothfish to make it sound more appetizing.
This white and flaky fish is often referred to as “white gold” within the fishing industry and has a buttery taste and texture.
Chilean sea bass are found in the waters of most of the southern hemisphere.
According to greenpeaceusa.org, Chilean sea bass can live as long as 50 years, reaching reproductive maturity at 10 years old or later, and can grow to more than 200 pounds.
They say the fish are often caught too young to have had a chance to reproduce.
Erika Matsunaga, manager of the Malibu restaurant, Nobu, said she keeps Chilean sea bass with black bean sauce on the menu because it is one of the restaurant’s original dishes and because she trusts her supplier to provide larger, older fish that have already reproduced.
Malibu Fish and Seafood is also keeping Chilean sea bass on their menu.
“We’ve been through this before with Chilean sea bass,” said Manager Jon Christensen. “If it’s really true that they’re over-fished, I would hope that they would cut off the fisheries.”
The commerce department suggests restaurateurs who keep the fish on their menus should insist their fish brokers verify the source of their Chilean sea bass and buy the fish only if they are shown the proper documentation.
The United States is part of the 24-member-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which has agreed to catch limits for Chilean sea bass and implemented a document system to track catches.
The U.S. is second only to Japan as the largest importer of the fish globally, and imports somewhere between 15 to 20 percent of the worldwide Chilean sea bass catch.
On June 6, the government of Australia agreed to sponsor a proposal to list Chilean sea bass as an Appendix II species at the Convention for the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) later this year.
According to NET, if this proposal is adopted when CITES meets in November in Chile, 159 countries will be required to refuse toothfish that is not accompanied by documentation certifying it was legally caught.
“An Appendix II listing by CITES brings us one step closer to putting Chilean sea bass back on the menu,” said NET’s “Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass” campaign manager Andrea Kavanagh.
“The many chefs and food professionals who took the first step to help save this fish are now looking to the U.S. government to cosponsor this proposal so they can one day serve this popular fish again.”