Authors: Pei, Sallie, and Zelin
To promote more sustainable use of marine resources, it is important to educate the public on where the seafood they see on their plate comes from and how the fishing industries will affect the environment. In Asia, education on fish in food culture has gained more and more attention as one of the major environmental outreach themes. Ecotourism is the main pathway to promote education and enhance public awareness related to fish in food culture. Further practices are expected to be involved in education like fish to school program.
With an interest in exploring examples of sustainable seafood practices and education outreach in the U.S. West Coast, Pei, Sallie, and Zelin launched an initiative to synthesize the what people on the U. S. West Coast have done to enhance seafood sustainability in the region. They shared their findings in the popular publication in Taiwan known as the Fishery Promotion Magazine under Taiwan Fishery Agency, Council of Agriculture.
While they did enjoy the fun of doing desktop research together to review sustainable seafood education and outreach projects such as the Community Supported Aquaculture, Seafood Watch and, Alaska State-Fish to Schools Program, Pei, Sallie, and Zelin also went on an adventure for the project. They visited popular grocery stores and supermarkets like Safeway, Trader Joe’s and QFC, and to see if they could easily trace the source, fishing method, and fish stock information of fresh, frozen and processed seafood available at the store. The team also visited the first sustainable seafood sushi bar- Mashiko Sushi, and tasted the delicious seafood there. Their findings on seafood traceability and their thoughts on Mashiko Sushi is can also be found in the article.
This journey and resulting publication was a way to commemorate the deep friendship that blossomed between the three students from Taiwan, Hongkong, and China, and to demonstrate the importance of perspective exchange and cultural communications.
