May 2, 2013 — The coordination among UMass, its food service vendor Chartwells, Plymouth-based Open Ocean Trading and local fishermen offers great potential: for more fish to be caught and sold, better prices for Chartwells and UMass, and fresher fish being eaten by UMass students here and across the state.
It seems like the perfect solution.
But it isn't.
Marder catches and sells dogfish — "99.999 percent" goes to overseas markets, he says — and would be happy to be selling more than .001 percent here.
On the surface, it looks like the local dogfish market suffers from a marketing problem. As freshman Jones suggests, who knew you could eat them? (Somebody knows, though. Fernando's in the South End serves Marder-caught dogfish.)
Marder's assertion is that dogfish's image problem runs deeper than that. He points out that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration FishWatch website notes the sustainability of the skate and dogfish fisheries, and Marder says vast portions of the quota for these fish, unfamiliar as they are to the American palette, are left in the sea each year.
On the other hand, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website, which is monitored closely by chain grocery stores, advises readers of the watch to "avoid" these species.
Why? That's the million-dollar question, according to Marder. Monterey Bay relies on science that some believe is less reliable than NOAA's.
Believable or not, wholesale buyers' fear of protest because of the influence an environmental "advocate" can keep the market for such species pressed thinner than skate wings.
Incidentally, it's dogfish that gets some of the blame for eating up young cod. If more of the dogfish quota were taken, the cod would have one less stressor, the groundfishermen would land more fish, and UMass students, and maybe more Bay Staters in general, would be eating fresher, sustainable fish.
Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times