Photos by Nate Toering and Paulo Torres
3:40pm | In an effort to spread awareness about sustainable seafood, the Aquarium of the Pacific last week held a cooking demonstration and shed light on its Seafood For The Future campaign that aims to help consumers make a delicious and eco-friendly choice.
The aquarium is partnering with local restaurants that offer sustainable seafood items, and will display the Seafood For The Future logo on their menu items that the aquarium agrees are healthy, from a sustainable wild or farmed fishery, eco-friendly and socially responsible.
Local restaurants involved in the program now include Long Beach favorites such as McKenna’s on the Bay, Parker’s Lighthouse, Nino’s Italian Restaurant, Renaissance Long Beach and catering companies Eco Caters and Primal Alchemy. In the greater Los Angeles area, seafood consumption is twice the national average, according to the aquarium.
The event also intended to ease fears about the safety of eating seafood from the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill earlier this year.
Photographers Nate Toering and Paulo Torres were on hand to bring you a whiff of the delicious dishes pictured here, and prepared by Aquarium of the Pacific Seafood For The Future program manager Andrew Gruel, who prepared Gulf of Mexico shrimp with basil and pineapple brochette with toasted peanuts, flash-seared Gulf of Mexico shrimp with honey, line and sweet pepper, and chilled California calamari with avocado, tangerines, chipotle and cilantro.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regional marine mammal stranding coordinator Sarah Wilkin explains the NOAA’s role in wildlife rescue after the oil spill.
Aquarium of the Pacific CEO Jerry Schubel greets hungry guests.
