New cookbook highlights the need for sustainable seafood

British Columbians who love to cook now have a plethora of sustainable seafood recipes to draw from in the new cookbook Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coast.

Lure is the first cookbook by prominent B.C. chef Ned Bell. He is the executive chef and ambassador for the Ocean Wise program — a Canada-wide ocean protection initiative. 

Bell also works alongside a team of marine biologists and experts at the Vancouver Aquarium, staying up to date on the latest research for sustainable ocean stewardship.

Speaking with host Sheryl MacKay during CBC's North by Northwest, Bell said the name Lure is meant as a double entendre.

"I want to lure people into the conversation around healthy lakes, oceans and rivers," Bell said.

An ocean of options

Bell recently went on a cross-country bike trip, connecting with chefs in other provinces to discuss the challenges that arise when seafood sustainability becomes a goal.

Originally the cookbook was meant to include recipes from the three oceans surrounding Canada, but upon returning to B.C., Bell decided just to focus on the West Coast of North America.

He said North Americans predominantly cook whitefish, tuna, salmon and shrimp. Cooking the thousands of more diverse options from the ocean can be intimidating for home cooks. But Bell said "cooking down the food chain," is more ecologically friendly and something people should be doing more often.

"First and foremost I want people to eat more vegetables and plants, full stop. Garnished with sustainable seafood? Absolutely," Bell said. 

He said there are about 10,000 edible plants in the ocean that can be cooked to perfection. Also, shellfish, geoducks, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, goose-neck barnacles, herrings, sardines, anchovies and sea urchins are all more sustainable options, Bell said, because they can be cultivated responsibly.

Conscious consumers

But there is a degree of responsibility a cook needs to take when trying to cook sustainably, because ocean ingredients can be harvested according to different standards.

"The best thing you can do is just ask the question, is this seafood sustainable?" Bell said. 

Determining seafood's sustainability can be done several ways, the first of which is seeing if it is recommended by Ocean Wise. Bell said the Seafood Watch Program operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the SeaChoice Program launched by David Suzuki are also excellent options.

"There are ways you can farm fish responsibly ... We can raise fish on land in a very responsible way, and there are certain species that are raised in the ocean that are also very responsible ... The conversation is not just black and white."

Bell said the conversation around eating seafood responsibly has never been more important, as grim statistics point to a possible global fisheries collapse by 2050 if practices aren't changed.

"It's not our right to just harvest to ocean to the brink of collapse ... We have to continue to be stewards of this ecosystem and be conscious consumers."

With files from North by Northwest