SeaChoice Attends the Slow Fish Event in Italy

This report was written by the SeaChoice Atlantic Coordinator Tyler Schulz

Earlier this month, I traveled to Genoa, Italy to attend Slow Fish, the international Slow Food event that focuses on seafood. As the Atlantic Coordinator of SeaChoice, I was eager to participate in a global event that explores the relationship between people and their seafood and encourages reflection of the process with which marine animals are harvested, cooked, and eaten.

The purpose of Slow Fish is to make people think about the seafood that they are eating and become aware of issues relating to the oceans, fishing, and fish consumption. By informing people about the current state of affairs and providing examples of ecologically sustainable types of fishing and consumption, Slow Fish intends to promote a different attitude towards seafood purchasing and consumption while also fostering an appreciation for good food and the cultural traditions behind fishing.

I arrived at Slow Fish to find a line of eager Italians arguing with the ticket sellers as to when the ticket wicket should be opened. I guess I was expecting primarily a foreign crowd at Slow Fish because I was quite surprised at how many locals were excitedly yelling and arguing in Italian in the ticket queue. In fact, while I had heard that Terre Madre, the biennial meeting of food communities, is largely multilingual, the displays, workshops, and exhibits at Slow Fish were almost entirely in Italian, which did present some problems in communicating with people at the event. Nonetheless, the energy and intent of the event was perfectly apparent and I was excited to immerse myself in the communal excitement to change the way that people consider seafood.

To address the purpose of Slow Fish, the Fiera di Genova conference centre was divided into three different themes: education, promotion, and protection.

In the ‘Education’ section, displays were installed to teach people about what choices they can make at the market, at restaurants, and in their everyday lives to minimize marine pollution and the depletion of fish stocks. One elaborate learning game, ‘Which Fish?’ involved participants being assigned a particular fish species and then following the path of that fish from sea to plate, learning about marine pollution, overfishing and the fishing of undersized fish, as well as the culinary pleasures of relatively unknown fish, such as paddlefish, mullet, and picarel.

Moreover, the education section contained ‘Fish Tales’, an educational program for school children to learn about good examples of clean and fair fishing. Although both ‘Which Fish?’ and ‘Fish Tales’ were in Italian and so difficult for me to comprehend, the ideas behind them were interesting and certainly provided useful concepts for the creation of future programs for Canadian consumers and school children.

The ‘Education’ section also allowed Slow Fish attendees to participate in ‘Taste Workshops’, tantalizing guided tasting sessions to experience the joys of seafood dishes and discover the methods and cultural context in which a food product originates, as well as in the ‘Theater of Taste’, demonstrations of the prowess of top Italian and international chefs in action.

Although I felt that these culinary experiences were important in celebrating the sensory experiences of seafood and wine, as a biologist, I felt that one of the most important components of Slow Fish was the ‘Water Workshops’, panel discussions on the current situation and the future of the seas and fishing. These workshops focused on such issues as marine protected areas, aquaculture, climate change, pollution, and good fishing practices. Fortunately, these workshops were simultaneously translated into English, allowing me to listen in on the discussions and questions.

While I was impressed with the intention of Slow Fish to provide the public with information on responsible fish consumption via the ‘Water Workshops’, I often perceived a disparity between what North Americans and Italians, including the Slow Fish organizers, considered important in terms of sustainable fisheries. For example, the first ‘Water Workshop’ I went to was described in the program as a lecture on how to recognize good quality fish at the market and how to distinguish between wild and farmed fish.

From this description, I anticipated a demonstration of the differences in the appearance, taste, and texture of wild and farmed salmon. Instead, the chair of the workshop, an Italian zoology professor, brought out a blue shark, barracuda, and skate for his discussion of fresh seafood purchasing. I was shocked. Because the removal of top marine predators, such as sharks, from the ocean is a highly unsustainable practice that can result in ecosystem instability and trophic cascades, I found it incredibly bizarre that a shark would be present on a plate at Slow Fish, an event with a described aim of promoting sustainable fishing practices.

Likewise, at a ‘Water Workshop’ on aquaculture, while the three North Americans on the panel (two university professors and a conservation biologist) argued that the farming of carnivorous finfish, such as tuna and salmon, was absolutely unsustainable, many of the Italians on the panel downplayed the negative impacts that marine finfish aquaculture has on the environment. Although the opinions of these panel members may have also differed as a result of their association affiliations rather than their nationalities (some of the aquaculture workshop panel members were presidents of pisciculture and aquaculture associations), I also sensed differences in the way that some Italian zoologists and conservation biologists at Slow Fish perceived the importance of discouraging unsustainable fishing methods.

I felt that while there was a general recognition that drastic changes were needed to address current fisheries crises, few Italians at the event were willing to make extreme changes to their diets, a consequence of their habit as a gourmand for enjoying fine food.

The ‘Promotion’ section of Slow Fish involved the market, enoteca, bistro, and seafood osterias, where I was able to sample, buy, and dine upon a wide variety of seafood products. The market was perhaps the busiest and most lively section of Slow Food, with row after row of colourful stands selling fresh fish, fish-based products, as well as olive oils, vinegars, and jellies. And while it was encouraging to see the selling and promotion of products made from small fishes, such as sardines and anchovies, it was disappointing to see Atlantic Cod in the market stands at Slow Fish.

Moreover, even more shocking was the display of two freshly-caught fish: a large shark and a swordfish. At first glance I thought these fish must be fakes, synthetic replicas to demonstrate the anatomy of large fishes to Slow Fish attendees. But after touching the fish and their blood and realizing that they were real, I became baffled as to why such unsustainable fishing would be promoted at an event with a commitment to stimulate the awareness and education of responsible fish consumption.

Finally, in the ‘Protection’ section of Slow Fish, conservation groups, such as the World Wildlife Fund, had booths, videos, and displays about marine conservation and marine protected areas. Even more importantly, this section of Slow Fish also included a section dedicated to fishermen’s associations and sea presidia, which were created to defend small communities of traditional fishermen.

I felt that this area of the event was perhaps the most important of Slow Fish, as it allowed fishermen to meet and discuss their shared experiences concerning overfishing, mismanagement, and other fishing problems as well as allow the general public to put a human face on the independent fishing industry. Furthermore, this section of Slow Fish allowed myself and other event-goers to get a global perspective on the problems that independent fishermen currently face. From Ghana, Sweden, Japan, Chile, and a variety of other countries, representatives from fishing associations shared not only the fruits of their labour with attendees, but also their experiences with each other so that they might learn from one another and perhaps come away from Slow Fish with a solution to their current problem.

I spoke with a husband and wife team of fishers from the Netherlands that were frustrated by the commercialization of fishing in their region and the problems that the recent anti-trust movement was causing for local fishermen that had put in place effective, local, guidelines for fair and sustainable fishing. I spoke with an American woman that had successfully lobbied for the labeling of dyes in farmed salmon and was upset with the growing relationship between fish farms and the oil and gas industry in her country.

And I heard from a woman from Ghana that argued that while fishermen’s associations were important, the overabundance of associations in her region made it difficult to trace the chain of custody of seafood and effectively communicate concepts of sustainability. While there were several American representatives present, unfortunately there were no Canadian fishermen represented at Slow Fish.

All in all, I found Slow Fish to be a very eye-opening experience. It was inspiring to see how a collective vision and dedicated group or people could stage such a huge event that was both educational and entertaining. However, while I was initially very impressed with how interested in the Italian government and public were in attending Slow Fish (46,000 visitors attended Slow Fish 2007), I came to believe that the concepts of sustainability promoted at the event lagged behind those common in the movement in North America.

Nonetheless, it was a memorable and inspirational event that I know will only improve year after year, as more and more people become concerned about the future of wild seafood. In the meantime, I think it would be a great opportunity to develop a Slow Food presidia to improve the infrastructure of the production of a sustainable Nova Scotia seafood product, such as trap-caught shrimp, so that representatives of the presidia can attend Slow Fish 2009 and promote a sustainable Canadian fishery.