The wild ones
Culinary standouts are determined to change the way the world views farmed fish

Mia Stainsby
Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Celebrity chefs Rick Moonen and Jamie Kennedy visit the west coast to examine fish farms.

When Canadian culinary whiz Jamie Kennedy, and Rick Moonen, a New York celebrity seafood chef, stepped off a seaplane in Vancouver harbour recently they were rumpled and tussle-haired, and determined to change the way the rest of the world feels about farmed salmon. They'd just returned from Broughton

Archipelago off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, home to 28 salmon farms.

Kennedy and Moonen are the culinary equivalent of rock stars. When they speak, the restaurant world listens. And their words are heating up the salmon-farming spin wars. Kennedy hasn't served farmed salmon in five years, but the trip west was long overdue.

"I needed to see things with my own eyes," Kennedy said. "There are more and more sad tales associated with fish farming, and from a taste point of view, it's not the same."

Kennedy, who operates JK Wine Bar in Toronto, is a trail-blazing chef with huge influence and trendsetting clout. Moonen is chef/owner of one of New York's hottest seafood spots, restaurant rm. Both Moonen and Kennedy are boycotting farmed salmon until the highest standards for aquaculture are met.

That means zero risk of spreading disease, zero risk of farmed salmon escapes into the wild and zero risk of feces and feed wastes entering the ocean. The Broughton Archipelago trip, sponsored by Living Oceans Society, an environmental group, and including University of Alberta professor John Volpe who has done research into farmed salmon escaping into rivers, influenced their thinking. Moonen has already spoken to USA Today on the matter and has an e-mail list of heavyweight chefs who want to know more.

Several Vancouver area restaurants have taken sides. Lumiere, Blue Water Grill, Cin Cin, Feenie's, West and Bishop's signed on with Living Oceans, pledging they won't sell farmed salmon. Milestones, The Keg and Earl's haven't signed a commitment but they choose not to serve farmed salmon.

Chefs in Eastern Canada and the U.S. however, were not as aware of the farmed salmon controversy. Even Moonen was a huge farmed salmon fan until recently.

Jennifer Lash, executive director of Living Oceans, believes that getting the Eastern chefs on board will turn the tide in getting their standards met.

The biggest controversy right now, Lash says, is that of sea lice infecting wild salmon and that's what Kennedy and Moonen saw first hand on the West Coast trip, sponsored by the Living Oceans Society, an environmental group. The lice naturally exist in the wild on adult salmon, in deeper waters where they aren't harmful -- they fall off and die as the salmon enter fresh water, returning to breed up stream. But critics contend that fish farms near the shore provide a host for the lice to survive the winter. When the juveniles head to the ocean, the lice from the farmed salmon latch on and the young cannot survive infestation.

"We actually gathered our own random samples of salmon smolts and saw that every one had been attacked by sea lice," says Moonen. "We took a boat out, netted about 30 young pinks and looked at them one by one. Every single one had sea lice and they were dying. It was astounding. We could put our hands in the water and take them out, they were that susceptible to predation," Moonen said. "If something isn't done soon they're going to be wiped out in that area. Something needs to be done immediately. Scientists and politicians want 100 per cent confirmation. By the time we acquire that kind of confirmation, it'll be too late."