How fish is cooked affects heart-health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids

How fish is cooked affects heart-health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids

Holiday Specials ... Time is Running Out

2009 Holiday Specials - order this week for Thanksgiving pick-up!
Call Santa Barbara at (805) 966-5159 or Napa at (707) 224-FISH for more information and to place your order.

Homemade Seasonal Specialties
Whole Dungeness Crab - Cooked, Cracked, and Cleaned ...... Market Price
Bouillabaisse - add your own seafood from a plethora of choices ..... $12.95 per quart
Gravlox ..... $10.95 per 4oz
Kanaloa Crab Cakes ..... $7.95 each
Whole natural salmon boneless butterfly (no stuffing) ..... $12.95 per pound
Whole natural salmon stuffed with bay scallops, bay shrimp, and spinach ..... $15.95 per pound
Kanaloa Crab Cakes ..... $7.95 each

Party Platters
Smoked Fish Platter includes smoked black cod, scallops, salmon, and trout pâté ..... $94.95
Sashimi Platter includes two pounds of Kanaloa sushi grade fish (ahi, albacore, and izumidai) ..... $ 144.95
Jumbo Shrimp Platter homemade cocktail sauce with two pounds of jumbo shrimp..... $ 71.95
Smoked Salmon Platter full of Scottish lox, capers, onions, and dill sauce..... $107.95

Kanaloa Forging the Way to Sustainable Seafood

Kanaloa helps international seafood sustainability movement. Last month Kanaloa Seafood owner, Don Disraeli, attended an international symposium that brought together multiple stakeholders dedicated to providing the global seafood supply chain with innovative new ideas on sustainability. Don represented Kanaloa Seafood Market amongst a group comprised of individuals from highly respected organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Administration, World Wildlife Fund, Marine Stewardship Council, United States National Marine Fisheries Service, US Department of Agriculture, the Namibia Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Marine Harvest Canada, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, Kona Blue Water Farms, and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Kanaloa Seafood Market is the only seafood wholesaler/retailer/processor to be owned by accredited scientists. Don and Randee Disraeli continue to demonstrate the importance of creating a comprehensive environmental program through Kanaloa’s commitment to complying with the international business standard, ISO 14001. With advanced degrees from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Disraelis take a scientific approach to sustainable seafood that helps Kanaloa stay at the forefront of creating innovative business practices and insuring top-quality, environmentally-responsible seafood.

Crab Seasons Are Open!

In honor of the opening of Dungeness and Alaskan Red King crab seasons I thought it would be fun to share some information about these fisheries. Dungeness crab and Alaskan Red King crab are members of the Order Decopoda that also includes crayfishes, lobsters, prawns and shrimp – species all united by the shared characteristic of having 10 legs. Decopods are members of the subphylum, Crustacea, found within the phylum Anthropoda. In other words, these are delicious animals with lots of legs to munch on and a protective shell!

To view a great NPR slideshow on California Crabbers click here:

Dungeness Crab in California

Dungeness Crab (Cancer magister)

Distribution: Coastal intertidal zone to 170 meters deep. Commonly found north of Santa Barbara to Alaska (Habitat range does extend south to Magdalena Bay, Baja)

Length of Season: November through February

Type of Fishing Gear Used: Pots baited with herring, squid, or clams. Pot size and number of pots per vessel are regulated. There are also escape holes for undersized crab.

Fishery Regulations: Female crabs are not allowed to be harvested (they are thrown back), and only males over 6.25 inches in diameter may be kept. The duration and timing of the season avoids critical growth and molting periods in the Dungeness crab biological life cycle. However, individual fishing quotas are not issued and this results in a “derby” style fishery with intense pressure on crabbers during the first few weeks of the season. Since the Dungeness crab fishery is one the last well-managed, healthy fisheries in California; it is also one of the most popular, competitive, and now the most dangerous fishery.

Regulatory Agencies: The federal government allows the states of California, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska to manage the Dungeness crab fisheries off each respective coast.

Fishery Status: The Dungeness crab fishery started in San Francisco in 1848, and regulations similar to those used today were established in the early 1900s. Crabbers in the early days of the fishery were limited to male crabs larger than 6 inches and the season was closed during the fall molting period. Wide fluctuations (data collected since 1950) of Dungeness crab populations are not caused by fishing intensity, but rather by ocean conditions such as temperature, food availability, and ocean currents.

Alaskan Red King Crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus)

Distribution: Alaskan Red King Crabs live at depths between 40-200 meters from British Columbia to Japan with Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, Petrel Bank, the Pribilof Islands, Kodiak Island, and northern Southeast Alaska being the centers of its abundance in Alaska.

Length of Season: Very short, on the order of days to a few weeks in November.

Type of Fishing Gear Used: Pot gear is used and vessels are limited to a certain number of pots. Although pot gear can damage rocky sea-bottom habitat, the effects are lessened in sand and silt bottoms – where Alaskan Red King crabs are caught. Additionally, Alaskan Red King crab pot gear has been modified to reduce bycatch through the use of escape panels, and rings have been added that reduce ghost fishing (when lost gear continues to trap or catch marine life).

Fishery Regulations: There are restrictions on the minimum size and sex of crab (only large males over 6.5 inches wide can be harvested) and the type and amount of gear that can be used on each vessel.

Regulatory Agencies: The federal government (National Marine Fisheries Service) and the state of Alaska (North Pacific Fishery Management Plan).

Fishery Status: Alaskan Red King crab is currently not overfished and areas that have experienced overfishing or excessive by-catch in the past are currently closed. Like the Dungeness crab fishery, allowing only large males to be harvested insures that males reach reproductive maturity and reproduce before they are removed from the population. Additionally, fishery managers have implemented several programs to conserve the species, improve crabbers’ safety, and insure economic stability for dependent coastal communities. These programs include:

- The Crab Rationalization Program decreases fishing capacity (in terms of the number of vessels fishing in Alaska) through the creation of a limited access system that allocates specific quantities of crab (includes Red King and Tanner crabs) to harvesters, processors, and coastal communities. By eliminating the derby-style fishing, crab boats can fish for reasonable lengths of time with more rest because they know they are allotted a certain amount of crab each season. The Alaskan Sablefish (Black cod) and Halibut fisheries are already managed similarly.

- The Crab Buyback Program started in 2004 with the goal of encouraging a reduction in fishing capacity by paying crabbers to relinquish fishing vessels and licenses. NOAA (the Federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) paid fishermen for their vessels and licenses in order to increase stock conservation and end overfishing.

- The Crab Community Development Program allocates 10% of the total allowable catch to the Crab Community Development Quota Groups for the purpose improving the economic status of Western Alaska villages. By giving these communities an opportunity to invest in fisheries, local economies develop and diversify leading to the creation of social benefits and alleviating poverty in these remote areas.

Sources: California Department of Fish and Game, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Public Radio, Sunset Magazine