Ocean Wise infiltrates the sushi market with Zen Japanese Restaurant : Tiny Bites

Ocean Wise infiltrates the sushi market with Zen Japanese Restaurant

1 Comment Karen HamiltonJuly 25, 2009

Are you familiar with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program?

If not, you’re in luck. Blogathon 2009 Gold sponsor Coast Hotels & Resorts asked that we spread the word about this terrific initiative to adopt and promote sustainable aquaculture across Canada.

And we had a perfect topic to help us put it in context: the launch of Zen Japanese Restaurant’s Ocean Wise sushi menu, which is going a long way in pioneering the sustainable sushi movement in Greater Vancouver.

The quest for sustainable sushi

If you’ve been paying attention to all this chef talk about exemplifying local, seasonal, and sustainable cuisine, you should already be aware that the line of support is plainly drawn between fine dining establishments and the rest of the restaurant community. There are always exceptions, of course – Qoola immediately comes to mind – but the disparity of philosophy is most obvious when you look across that divide and witness the often unsustainable and eco-unaware practices of ethnic restaurants in Greater Vancouver.

Sushi restaurants, especially those with a casual dining or take-out audience, don’t seem to care whether their seafood is farmed, acquired illegally, or even on the endangered species list. The customer’s demand comes first, and that’s what ultimately matters.

Now, I’ve seen more than a handful of mid-range sushi restaurants with the Ocean Wise label on a few of their seafood items, but until Zen came along, I had never seen a sushi place shift its menu to be at least 25% Ocean Wise. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the Ocean Wise launch of Zen’s new menu, where a whopping 70% of their offerings are Ocean Wise!

Well done, Zen.

Canada’s 2009 Seafood Guide

Ocean Wise was not the only organization representing marine conservation at the Zen menu launch. Both the David Suzuki Foundation (my Blogathon 2008 charity of choice) and SeaChoice were in attendance – both members of Sustainable Seafood Canada.

SeaChoice took this as an opportunity to present guests with the new 2009 edition of the wallet-sized Canada’s Seafood Guide (PDF). I was pleased to see that BC spot prawns are on the Best Choice category, and chagrined that we haven’t made further inroads to making farmed salmon a more sustainable option.

Did you know?

SeaChoice has recently come out with an iPhone app version of their Canada’s Seafood Guide! Way to bring it to the hipsters, SeaChoice.

The trickle-down effect

My guest to the Zen launch was Johnny Flores, co-owner of Robson corridor’s Sushi Bento. His restaurant services a much more casual audience than Zen’s West Vancouver demographic. However, Johnny had participated last fall in a sustainable sushi PodMob and was on the fence about joining Ocean Wise as a bona fide member.

I’m extremely pleased to report that Johnny, being inspired and awed by the efforts of Zen, told me that he has taken the plunge to become Ocean Wise certified – hooray!

My hope is that this trickle-down effect continues: that those sushi restaurants that can afford to pave the path do engage with the smaller players in the market and similarly inspire them to make the change to sustainable sushi.