It never occurred to New York chef Rick Moonen that the increasingly downsized cuts of swordfish he was serving his customers could mean the delicacy was in trouble. Not, that is, until a fellow chef told him about the Give Swordfish a Break Campaign, organized by Seaweb.
By alerting Moonen and more than 100 other chefs that swordfish is being dangerously over-harvested, the campaign was responsible for removing swordfish from many restaurants’ menus. The chefs’ menu activism, in turn, prompted the National Marine Fisheries Service to lower the American swordfish quota and shut down a swordfish nursery, reports the ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS NETWORK.
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Though chefs still have to look after their restaurant’s bottom line, Moonen says his customers have been responsive to the plight of the swordfish.
“We really want people to understand that their seafood choices have an environmental impact,” says a Seaweb spokesperson. “People already understand this with other food, but not when it comes to seafood, the last truly wild food we eat.”
