National Restaurant Association Joins ‘Share the Gulf’ Sustainability Initiative

As part of its efforts to support sustainability practices in the foodservice industry, The National Restaurant Association today announced it has joined Share the Gulf, a coalition of chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant associations, seafood suppliers, fishermen, consumers and environmentalists working to protect their access to fish in the Gulf States.

“The fresh, local seafood of the Gulf States is essential to the growth of the region’s economy and its varied foodservice businesses,” said Scott DeFife, Executive Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs for the National Restaurant Association. “We are committed to helping ensure this seafood is not only fished sustainably so its population continues to grow, but that the voices of small businesses, their employees and customers, also are heard.”

The initiative, launched in 2013, aims to ensure the region’s restaurants and grocery businesses maintain an equitable share of the Gulf States’ red snapper catch.

“Our goal is to make sure Gulf seafood continues to be shared fairly and sustainably so that all of us can enjoy it for generations to come,” said Stephen Stryjewski, executive chef at New Orleans-based Link Restaurant Group and Share the Gulf co-chair. “We believe – and science shows ‑ that if Gulf fisheries are well managed, there will be a growing population with plenty of snapper, grouper and other fish to go around. We are committed to sitting down and working together to find a productive, fair and reasonable solution about how to share the Gulf.”

In addition to the NRA, the Louisiana Restaurant Association, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, Texas Restaurant Association, Mississippi Restaurant and Hospitality Association and the Alabama Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance, as well as dozens of restaurants and seafood companies, are supporting the initiative, which is fighting proposed changes to regulations that would take a portion of the red snapper reserved for restaurant and foodservice use and make it available for recreational fishing instead.

To join Share the Gulf, go here. Visit the NRA’s Conserve program to learn more about sustainable practices for the restaurant industry.

Restaurateurs, chefs invited to learn more about the Share the Gulf coalition

This article ran in the Louisiana Restaurant Association Fall 2013 A La Carte magazine.

As a member organization of the recently created Share the Gulf coalition, the Louisiana Restaurant Association is advocating for maintaining the current allocation of red snapper (51 percent commercial and 49 percent recreational) for current and any future increase in total catch allowed. We invite you to visit the Share the Gulf coalition website to learn more.

The Louisiana restaurant industry depends on fair and sustainably managed fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. This means equal consideration for restaurant and consumers as well as recreational fishermen. We recognize that recreational anglers currently face harsh rules on some favorites like red snapper, grouper and others. At the same time, fishermen, seafood providers, restaurant owners and chefs with Share the Gulf are asking: How does taking fish from consumers help solve the problems facing anglers?

The current red snapper catches have seen a 70 percent increase in the total catch allowed in just the past five years. Commercial fishermen, seafood businesses and the consumer are reaping benefits because the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has considered stock assessments, NOAA data and public input in executing a management plan that has helped promote fish population recovery.

Unfortunately, angling seasons continue to shrink, regardless of the increased total catch, because the underlying recreational management plan remains broken. Anglers are understandably angry, but assigning them more fish (reallocation) won’t help. Instead, it hurts more people and our industry’s access to the highly desirable fish our restaurants love to offer their guests.

Many of us enjoy recreational fishing with our families and friends, and we want our families to experience catching their own dinner. We also know that many of our guests enjoy recreational fishing.

In our view, we should encourage an engaged discussion including recreational fishing, harvesting, distributors and restaurant interests.  Let’s talk about what everyone’s goals are and how we can achieve them together. Let’s stand up together and ask the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to focus their attention on recreational management plans that will actually extend seasons over the long-term, improve data collection and reporting and enhance sustainability.

The commercial management through the Gulf Council is working. We hope that similar success can lead to addressing the concerns and fishery management challenges for recreational interests as well.

LRA invites restaurateurs, chefs to join Share the Gulf coalition

As a member organization of the recently created Share the Gulf coalition, the Louisiana Restaurant Association is actively advocating for equitable allocation for some of the Gulf’s most sought after fish. We invite you to join the Share the Gulf coalition.

The Louisiana restaurant industry wants and relies on fair and sustainably managed fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. This means equal consideration for restaurant and consumers as well as fishermen. We recognize that recreational anglers currently face harsh rules on favorites like red snapper, grouper and others. At the same time, fishermen, seafood providers, restaurant owners and chefs with Share the Gulf are asking: How does taking fish from consumers help solve the problems facing anglers?

In the Gulf of Mexico the red snapper allocation between commercial and recreational fishing is just about even (51% commercial and 49% recreational). The recreational interests have sought as the total catch increases to allocate more of it for recreational fishing. The LRA supports today’s allocation percentages whether based on the current allowable catch or any future allocation increase.

There is an important fact being overlooked. Recreational and commercial fishermen harvesting red snapper have seen a 70 percent jump in the amount they’re allowed to catch in just the past five years. Commercial fishermen, seafood businesses and consumer are reaping benefits because the management plan works (and helps promote fish population recovery).

Unfortunately, angling seasons continue to shrink, regardless of the 70 percent more fish, because the underlying recreational management plan remains broken. Anglers are understandably angry, but assigning them more fish (reallocation) won’t help. Instead, it hurts more people and more businesses. It’s already difficult for many chefs to source many options for fresh Gulf fish and this would make it even harder.

Many of us enjoy recreational fishing with our families and friends, and we want our children to experience catching their own dinner. We also know that many recreational fishermen enjoy ordering fresh local fish in Gulf seafood restaurants.

Recreational fishing is important to the economy and so are the small businesses tied to the “commercial fishery” and the “supply chain” like restaurants, grocery stores, distributors, shippers and others.

Let’s talk about solutions and new management options. Let’s talk about what everyone’s goals are and how we can achieve them together. Let’s stand up together and ask the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to focus their attention on recreational management plans that will actually extend seasons over the long-term, improve data collection and reporting and enhance sustainability.

Through the Share the Gulf coalition, we hope to work with recreational fishermen throughout the Gulf to find productive long term solutions for this shared resource.

Join the Share the Gulf coalition today!

Florida Restaurant & Lodging Assc joins Share the Gulf Coalition

The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA) joined the Share the Gulf coalition, formed to help ensure Gulf seafood continues to be shared fairly and sustainably for generations to come. The effort was initiated in part as a response to a current proposal being vetted before members of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council that could alter allocation of fresh gulf seafood and diminish the supply for restaurants and seafood markets.

Every year, millions of Americans enjoy fresh seafood caught by local small businesses and supplied to restaurants and grocery stores across the country.  These small businesses make up what is called the “commercial fishery” and they provide consumers the ability to enjoy Gulf seafood like red snapper, grouper and other reef fish without having to catch it themselves on deep sea boats. The coalition knows that if the resource is managed well, there are plenty of fish like red snapper and grouper to go around. The Share the Gulf coalition believes that all Americans – sportsmen as well as restaurants, seafood lovers and commercial fishermen – deserve to enjoy the Gulf's bounty.

“It is imperative the Gulf’s resources are shared fairly to ensure Florida’s commercial fisheries remain healthy and sustainable,” said Carol Dover, President and CEO of the FRLA. “Here in the Sunshine State, fresh Gulf seafood is an essential part of our hospitality industry and we will continue to vigorously work with fishery leaders to safeguard our businesses and consumers.”

The Louisiana Restaurant Association is also a coalition member and its President/CEO Stan Harris has been a vocal advocate for the cause. Member chefs Haley Bittermann, Brian Landry, Tenney Flynn and Frank Brigtsen have testified before the Gulf Fishery Management Council in past months in support of Share the Gulf’s cause.

“Members of Congress, our Gulf state governors, the Gulf Council and the federal and state fishery agencies must hear from the chefs and restaurateurs about the need for fair allocations on behalf of the American consumer and the businesses our industry partners with for supply.” said Harris. “The coalition will press decision-makers to keep sustainably caught Gulf seafood on the table for the millions of Americans who don’t fish or own their own boat."

The body responsible for managing these fisheries, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, will be meeting October 28^th through November 1^st in New Orleans. The Share the Gulf coalition plans to alert members of the restaurant and seafood communities, elected officials, and consumers of these plans and their dire economic consequences.

New Share the Gulf Coalition seeks fairness for Gulf commercial fisherman

More than 130 chefs, restaurant owners, fishermen, seafood industry leaders and conservationists have come together to form a coalition to raise awareness and support for fishermen, restaurants, retail, consumers and tourism depending on fair access to fresh Gulf seafood.

Share the Gulf is an effort initiated in part as a response to a proposal in front of regulators at the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to take fresh Gulf fish away from seafood counters that are supplied by family-owned commercial fishing businesses that catch red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.

“This is a coalition of people and groups from across the Gulf that care about making sure access to the Gulf’s resources are shared fairly and sustainably,” said Chef Stephen Stryjewski of New Orleans-based Cochon and Pêche Seafood Grill and founding chef chair of the coalition.

Red snapper is a shared fishery split almost evenly between commercial and recreational fishermen. Due to an outdated data collection system, the offshore recreational fishermen targeting red snapper are caught in a failed management system producing inaccurate data on the amount of fish caught, resulting in shortened seasons year after year.

Coalition to Bring Groups Together

“This coalition is a great opportunity to bring together fishermen, chefs and consumers to voice the importance of seafood to Texas and the rest of the Gulf,” said Jim Gossen, Chairman of Houston-based Sysco Louisiana Seafood and a Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) board member. “Our goal is to make sure fishery managers continue the practice of fair regulations that sustain the resource for the people depending on it.”

While the vast majority of recreational and commercial fishermen believe in sharing the Gulf’s resources, a few groups have suggested taking fish from consumers and reserve it for offshore recreational fishing as a solution to the problem. Share the Gulf, whose goal is to ensure Gulf seafood continues to be shared fairly and sustainably to be enjoyed for generations to come, disagrees.

“We have worked to build a healthy and sustainable commercial fishery for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Bubba Cochrane a commercial fisherman from Galveston, TX and President of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance.  “The plans in front of the Council will hurt fishing businesses and consumers and set a dangerous precedent.”

In 2007, the Gulf’s commercial red snapper fishery implemented a self-management program helping the population recover from a long-standing depleted status.  The allocation system has allowed commercial fishermen to fish smarter, as well as continuously year round.

The change has been working.  Recently Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, an internationally recognized sustainable seafood program rating the sustainability of fisheries, removed red snapper from its “Red List”.

If red snapper, grouper or other reef fish are taken away from commercial fishing businesses, seafood suppliers, restaurants and retailers that rely on them; the consequences could be devastating to the Gulf’s seafood industry.

“It’s not just fishermen who depend on red snapper, grouper and other Gulf fish,” said Chef Hugo Ortega of Houston’s Backstreet Cafe and Hugo’s and a coalition co-chair. “Being able to buy fresh Gulf seafood is important to my business and important to the customers I serve.

Gulf Seafood Needs to Align in Collaborative Way

Stan Harris
President/CEO
Louisiana Restaurant
Association

“The industry needs to align in a collaborative way so the Council can hear the challenges our chefs and owners face in today’s environment,” said Stan Harris, President/CEO of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, and GSI Board Member. “Members of Congress, our Gulf state governors, the Gulf Council and the federal and state fishery agencies must hear from the chefs and restaurateurs about the need for fair allocations on behalf of the American consumer and the businesses our industry partners with for supply."

Efforts to reserve fish and limit consumer choice have happened before, with red drum and speckled trout in particular.  A number of interests have expressed concern that the elimination of commercial fishing for red snapper could lead to other Gulf fish, like grouper.

"The coalition will press decision-makers to keep sustainably caught Gulf seafood on the table for the millions of Americans who don’t fish or own their own boat," Harris added.

The removal from the “Red List” confirms fisheries like red snapper, as well as grouper, are being managed properly by commercial fisherman. Rather than penalizing chefs, restaurants, consumers and small fishing businesses responsible for managing the resources sustainably, Share the Gulf realizes the solution is not easy. It believes working together options are available to provide relief to the recreational fishermen from their outdated management plan.

As a first step to better management, technical solutions for recreational fishermen could be instituted; such as a phone application to collect data on fish harvested, documented with photos.

“The members of this coalition want to foster a reasonable debate that leads to fishery management that is fair to everyone and above all sustains the resource for all of its benefits to society and the environment,” said Pam Baker, Gulf of Mexico Director for Environmental Defense Fund. “We want to work with fishery leaders to explore options that provide the longer fishing seasons and long-term conservation anglers seek."

The Share the Gulf coalition is committed to a productive, fair and reasonable dialogue with regulators, elected leaders and others on how the Gulf’s resources fairly and sustainably can best be shared, now and for generations to come.

Sharing a sustainable Gulf focus of emerging coalition

Gulf residents haven’t forgotten when many of their favorite fish were in short supply and even unavailable during parts of the year. Today red snapper, a wide variety of groupers and other “reef fish” are more readily available, caught by a well-managed and increasingly sustainable commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. The consumers who want to enjoy these indigenous fish species are served by the commercial fishing community.

These same fish are shared with recreational fishermen and charter fishing boats. In the Gulf of Mexico the red snapper allocation between commercial and recreational fishing is just about even (51% commercial and 49% recreational). The recreational interests have sought as the total catch increases to allocate more of it for recreational fishing. The Louisiana Restaurant Association supports today’s allocation percentages whether based on the current allowable catch or any future allocation increase.

At the Gulf Fishery Management Council meeting in June in Pensacola Chefs Haley Bittermann and Brian Landry received applause from the gathered commercial fisherman following their testimony. They both spoke in support of maintaining the equitable allocation of red snapper as it currently exists. The Council also was considering additional quota to this year’s red snapper allocation.

Gulf Fisheries Management Council member Harlon Pearce
with Chef Haley Bittermann at the June 20 Red Snapper
emergency hearing in Pensacola, FL.

“The fish in the Gulf of Mexico belongs to all of us, every person in the United States,” said Bittermann, executive chef of Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group. “Reasonable people should be able to have an engaged dialogue that can satisfactorily address the ideas of the restaurant and hospitality industries, the recreational and charter fishing industries and the commercial fishing industry.”

Bittermann believes, as does the LRA, that Gulf seafood is integral to Louisiana’s heritage and culture, and that the accessibility of these indigenous fish species provides the state’s restaurants with the opportunity to differentiate its cuisine and menu items. 

Chef Brian Landry fishes with his son, the same way he did
with is father as a child. Landry believes equitability 
between the commercial and recreational interests is of
the utmost importance to his restaurant Borgne, named
for the Louisiana lake he grew up fishing in.

“At Borgne Restaurant, we get our vegetables from Covey Rise Farms, rabbits from Arkansas and Mississippi and our fish from the Gulf of Mexico,” Landry said. “As certain fish have become less available or not available at all, like speckled trout and red fish, and if fish like snapper and grouper go, we just become any town USA. We’ll be blackening tilapia and serving fish that has nothing to do with our heritage and culture and why many people come to Louisiana.”

In July, Chefs Frank Brigtsen, Bradley McGhee, Tenney Flynn and Greg Sonnier testified in the second emergency meeting of the Council regarding red snapper allocations held in New Orleans. LRA President/CEO Stan Harris also spoke on behalf of the industry at both meetings and has been an advocate for the commercial fishing and the hospitality industry’s alliances as the needs of the consumer are met through commercial harvest.

Share the Gulf Coalition has grown from the effort of the restaurant industry to support the commercial fishing industry which supplies establishments with consumer-demanded fish species. The LRA believes by sharing this resource responsibly, the desires of all the interested parties can be met.

Currently there are some interests working to tilt the allocation of the red snapper fishery more to the recreational fishermen. As an industry, we cannot support this modification. These changes if approved would hurt these family-owned small commercial fishing businesses across the Gulf who rely on access to the fishery to earn their living. In turn the impact of any allocation restructuring would be felt on the tables of our restaurants resulting in some items disappearing from menus and dinner tables across the country.

It’s happened before as Landry mentioned. In the 1980s commercial fishermen were cut out of the Gulf red drum and speckled trout fisheries. The issue surrounding who can catch how much snapper is fundamentally one of fairness. The Gulf’s recreational fishermen catch eighty percent of the most popular fish in the Gulf, including overwhelming majorities of amberjack, red drum, speckled trout, king mackerel and triggerfish.

What can you do? The Share the Gulf Coalition includes chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant associations, seafood businesses, supermarkets, fishermen and local food advocates engaged in a public campaign to draw attention to the movement to reserve Gulf of Mexico red snapper and other reef fish for recreational anglers at the expense of American seafood businesses and consumers.

“Members of Congress, our Gulf state governors, the Gulf Council and the federal and state fishery agencies must hear from the chefs and restaurateurs about the need for fair allocations on behalf of the American consumer and the businesses our industry partners with for supply.” said Harris. “The coalition will press decision-makers to keep sustainably caught Gulf seafood on the table for the millions of Americans who don’t fish or own their own boat. "

Join the coalition here.