Sustainable Seafood Project

PMCC's  Sustainable Seafood Marketing Project  has been an enormously effective community outreach initiative. We address an important and previously overlooked aspect of marine conservation in Puget Sound Basin – sourcing and supporting local, wild and sustainably caught seafood for regional markets. PMCC considers sustainable seafood to be that which is not overfished, and is caught using fishing gears and methods which have zero or minimal bycatch or impacts on marine habitat. Under the guidance of PMCC's longtime seafood industry consultant, advisor and friend, Amy Grondin, we are providing fishery information to consumers and logistical assistance to independent fishermen. Our outreach and follow through enables local fishermen to continue using selective and low-impact fishing practices, during a political and economic climate in which efficiency and massive food harvest is considered more important than community sustainability and preserving our marine resources.

PMCC has introduced over 230 Seattle area culinary students to local commercial fishermen, in classes following our Fishermen-Student Lesson Plan where discussions about sustainability and fishing gear impacts are combined with instruction on seafood preparation techniques. In 2006, the ninth such class at Seattle Central Community College was held, and observed by two instructors with other colleges interested in using this lesson plan. An article about PMCC's culinary classes was published in the February-March 2006 edition of Wild Catch Magazine. The consequences of losing Washington state's traditional seafood harvesters are significant. PMCC and some of the most conservation-minded tribal and non-tribal fishermen face powerful opposition, by large-scale industrial fishing and processing representatives, their lobbyists, and Seattle-based proponents of farming halibut, salmon, rockfish and sablefish in Washington waters. Our Sustainable Seafood Marketing Project, a cornerstone of the Port Townsend-based Community Program, is reflective of PMCC's commitment to support selective wild fisheries and direct seafood marketing efforts by coastal fishermen.