Wiley's Finest Wild Alaskan Fish Oil presents a guide to Choosing Sustainable Seafood.

1. Seafood Sustainability:
Why it Matters
Sam Wiley, Wiley’s Finest, April 19th 2015

2. EPA & DHA are scarce nutrients in
Land-based Diets
Calcium
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Iron
Selenium
Potassium
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Manganese
Protein
ALA
Fish &
Seafood
Land
Plants
& Animals
EPA & DHA

3. Where do EPA & DHA come from?
Ultimately most all EPA & DHA from microscopic marine
plants. Fish have limited ability to synthesize
Krill
Larger Fish
Shellfish
Phytoplankton
Forage Fish
Fish are EPA / DHA collectors

4. Source: http://alwaysomega3s.com/learn/good-sources/seafood-for-omega-3s
How much Omega-3s are in seafood?

5. Revised Seafood Intake
Recommendations during Pregnancy
• Previous confusing recommendations that pregnant
mothers limit seafood consumption to not more than 12
ounces per week.
• FDA and EPA now recommend that mothers eat at least
two (and up to three) servings of fish per week during
pregnancy for proper child development.
• Many believe that mercury content of fish is a big concern,
in fact Omega-3 deficiency from not eating fish is a much
larger and more severe dietary issue.
• Recent findings indicate that the benefit of getting enough
omega-3 for both mother and child is far more important
than the potential risk of consuming mercury.

6. “91% of Seafood sold in the United
States is imported”
• In 2012, Americans ate little
less than 15 lbs of seafood
per person (compare to 212
lbs of red meat + poultry)
• 1/3 of seafood US produces
is exported
• 79% of all Alaska Salmon is
exported
Author Paul Greenberg American Catch

7. Common Fishing Problems
• We eat the largest size fish
• We eat the choicest, most
prized & tastiest species
• We grind up most of the
small fish into animal feed
• We waste a lot of other fish
(bycatch)
• No one owns the fish -
Incentives are to catch
more fish than other
fishers
• Fishing has an impact on
ecosystem

8. IUU Fishing
Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated
“An Oceana study found between 20 to
32 percent of wild-caught
seafood imported to the U.S.
comes from illegal fishing,
either fishing in closed areas, catching
threatened or endangered species or
using banned gear, that damages marine
ecosystems. The illegal takes cost an
estimated $32 billion a year.”
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/15/us/ap-us-tracking-
seafood.html
USCG cutter Rush escorts the 177-foot Da Cheng, a
suspected illegal high-seas driftnetter. The vessel was
targeting albacore tuna and had 30 metric tons
aboard, along with 6 tons of shark carcasses and fins.

9. IUU Fishing
(not just bad for fish, bad for people too)
“When the reporter went to the
island, she found men held in a cage
so that they wouldn't run away.
"They were trapped. They had no
way to go home; they had not heard
from their family in five, 10 years.
They were in a desperate situation,"
Mendoza says.”
- AP report March 27th 2015
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/03/27/395589154/was-your-
seafood-caught-by-slaves-ap-uncovers-unsavory-trade
AP Report in March 2015 found that Burmese slaves
(Myanmar) were being used to fish in indonesian waters

10. Thomas Henry Huxley
Inspector of Fisheries
President of the Royal Society
(grandfather of author Aldus Huxley)
“I believe that it may be affirmed with
confidence that, in relation to our present
modes of fishing, a number of the most
important sea fisheries, such as the cod fishery,
the herring fishery, the mackerel fishery, are
inexhaustible,
And probably all the great
sea-fisheries, are
inexhaustible; that is to say
nothing we do seriously affects
the number of fish.
And any attempt to regulate these fisheries
seems consequently… to be useless.”
Great International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883
London, England
Supplies of fish were once thought to be unlimited

11. Forage Fish
• Menhaden and Anchovy
key sources
• Also Herring, Sardine, and
Mackerel
• Impractical & costly (but
not impossible) to filet
and then render
trimmings to extract oil
“1/3 of all the wild fish caught on Earth
end up as fish meal or fish oil.
Of that, 81 percent goes to feed farmed fish”
Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana, Perfect Protein, pg 78

12. Forage Fish: Peruvian Anchoveta
(Engraulis ringens)
• Forage Fish (filter feeder)
• UN’s FAO calls it “The most heavily exploited fish in world
history, yielding 13MM MT in 1971” at its peak fishing
• 2010 catch was just under 7MM MT
• Almost exclusively a reduction fishery
• Approximately 60% of global market for raw fish oil
Jan 6, 2012

13. The problem with Anchovies
• In his book Perfect Protein
Oceana’s CEO Andy
Sharpless estimates that if
all of the Peruvian
Anchovies were canned or
frozen and fed to humans,
you could provide an extra
400MM dinners / year
• Currently, only about 2% of
the catch is eaten directly
by people.
• Instead, they go mostly to
feed farmed salmon:

14. Dr. Patricia Majulf
“Eat Anchovies”
“Each year, 6 million to 10
million metric tons of
anchoveta, a fish in the
anchovy family, are extracted
from a narrow strip of ocean
off the coast of Peru, known as
the Humboldt upwelling
ecosystem.
Most of the anchoveta are
converted to fish oil and
fishmeal, used as animal feed
for chickens, pigs, and salmon,
among others.”
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2012/02/28/peruvian-scientist-patricia-majluf-awarded-2012-pew-fellowship-in-marine-conservation
“We need to use science to
improve the use of fish in the
world, definitely. We're wasting
too much fish. We could eat more
fish if we were just more careful
about what we’re catching and
how we use it. We could do
better.”
http://www.lenfestocean.org/en/publications/fact-sheet/making-marine-science-matter-qa-with-patricia-majluf-imcc-keynote-speaker

15. Oysters & Mussels:
great source of sustainable seafood
• Farmed, but not fed
any fishmeal, corn or
soy meal
• Indistinguishable
from wild shellfish
• Basically like a tree
farm
• Great source of
Omega-3s and other
nutrients
http://www.fishersislandoysters.com

16. What’s wrong with this picture?
• Commercial sources of Arctic
Char are all farmed
• Lack of consumer AND
Retailer knowledge about
seafood sources
• Recall when I was in college
about a decade ago, crab
sold in major grocery retailer
would say “product of USSR”
• Consumer Reports estimates
20-25% of fresh & frozen
seafood sold in U.S. is
mislabeled for species
Courtesy Paul Greenberg twitter post

17. Little transparency about species source for Fish Oils

18. Important Questions for assessing
sustainability of a fishery
• What species is being caught?
• Who caught it?
• Where did they catch it?
• What gear type did they use?
• How much non-target species (bycatch) was caught?
• Is the biomass scientifically studied and assessed?
• Is the fishery managed independently with a fishery
management plan?
• Is a quota system in place?

19. Good Solutions to Fishing Problems
• Harvest & Eat fish which
reproduce quickly
• Don’t just eat Salmon &
Tuna – smaller species like
Pollock, anchovies, oysters,
and mussels
• Transparent, Science based
fisheries management
• Individual Fishing Quotas
(IFQ)

20. What does it mean for fishing to be sustainable?
1. Target fish stocks come back year after year
2. Bycatch of non-target species is minimized
3. Impact of fishing vessels on rest of ecosystem is
minimized

21. Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Great simple guide to seafood
• Uses Green-Yellow-Red system
• Problem that it focuses on
species common name – can
confuse some consumers
• For instance Albacore Tuna is
Red – Avoid, but US troll and
longline US Albacore is fine.
• Formally Recognizes MSC as
equivalent standard

22. What does Really Mean?
The Marine Stewardship Council,
started by the WWF, is the Gold
Standard for sustainable &
responsible fishing practices
1. Independent Assessment of fishery
to global standard to ensure target
Fish stocks are well-managed and
healthy
2. Full Lot & Species Traceability of
products back to fishing vessels
3. Guaranteed Species – MSC conducts
un-annouced DNA testing for fresh &
frozen seafood labeled as MSC

23. What does Really Mean?
COMPARISON OF WILD-CAPTURE FISHERIES CERTIFICATION SCHEMES
Sept 2012 Accenture study commissioned by WWF

24. Food Fish: Alaska Pollock
Alaska Pollock
(Theragra chalcogramma)
• Member of the Cod Family (Gadidae)
• Largest fishery for human food
consumption in the world
• Nearly 40-yr track record of responsible
fisheries management
• Caught in the Bering Sea and Gulf of
Alaska

25. US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
Jan 6, 2012
April 12, 2010
• US Territorial Waters only go out 12 miles from land
• Binding international recognition of the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone
by the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.
• Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers resources like oil and fish
Only US Flag vessels can fish in the US EEZ

26. Source – Page 110 of the EBS SAFE - http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/REFM/Docs/2012/EBSpollock.pdf
37yrs since 1976
Alaska Pollock:
38 years of Sustainable Fisheries Management

27. Why Alaska Pollock is sustainably harvested
1. Only American owned fishing vessels can fish in Alaskan waters
2. Bering Sea ecosystem is exhaustively studied and researched
3. 38 year track record of managing sustainable catch levels
4. Quota system incentivizes Fishers to fish sustainably
5. Onboard Observer Program ensures fishery is closely monitored
“The modern pollock
industry, while by no
means perfect, is one of
the best managed in the
world”
Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana
Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to
Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World,
pg. 99
“Pollock is considered one of the
world’s best-managed
populations…It is sometimes
referred to as a poster child of
marine fisheries management”
Kevin M. Bailey
“Billion-Dollar Fish: the untold story of Alaska Pollock”

28. Sam’s Naughty & Nice List
• Naughty
– Chilean Sea Bass (except
MSC certified)
– Orange Roughy
– Swordfish
– Shark
– Bluefin & Yellowtail Tuna
• Nice
– Alaska Pollock
– Pacific (Alaskan) Cod
– Alaskan Salmon
– Mussels
– Oysters
– US Pacific NW Albacore
Pacific Albacore Tuna (Thunnus alalunga)Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus)

29. Recommended Reading
• The Omega-3 Effect by Bill Sears
• Overfishing: What you Need to know by
Ray Hillborn
• Cod: A Biography of the Fish that changed
the world by Mark Kurlansky
• American Catch by Paul Greenberg
• Tuna: Love, Death, and Mercury by
Richard Ellis
• Perfect Protein by Andy Sharpless
• The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is
Changing the World and What We Eat by
Charles Clover

30. "I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer there came none—
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
—Lewis Carroll
The Walrus and the Carpenter