Sustainable Seafood

Local Fish Distributor Working to Make Snapper More Sustainable

We're glad we can eat you again.
We’re glad we can eat you again. Photo: Box-of-American-Red Snapper, courtesy Mark Palicki

Red snapper is a fish we used to eat all the time. Then it started being listed on “avoid” lists from places like the Shedd and Monterrey Bay Aquariums. These and other aquatically conscious organizations have worked to maintain sustainability by alerting fish-eaters what species were on the brink of extinction (short answer: lots). Now, some fisheries are making it possible for us to eat snapper again, and a Chicago distributor is working with them to bring snapper back to Chicago’s tables.

Years of outdated management led to overfishing of reef fish, like American red snapper, in the Gulf of Mexico. Sustainable management plans are helping these reefs rebuild themselves, and Bensenville’s Fortune Fish Company is partnering with Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage global seafood supply chains to rebuild depleted fish stocks and reduce the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Throughout April and May, Fortune Fish Company will feature vertical hook and line-caught American red snapper. For every pound sold, a portion of proceeds support the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery Improvement Project, which is dedicated to improving policies and practices of harvesting fish like red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, it would be nice if bluefin tuna had a champion, because we’d sure like to eat some of that again.

Local Fish Distributor Working to Make Snapper More Sustainable