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Producer Spotlight
Lauren Farms Shrimp
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Dear Friends and Partners,
Happy New Year! 2009 was an eventful year in seafood. More and more consumers began asking restaurateurs and retailers questions about where the fish they are buying comes from and how it was caught. Commercial buyers became more committed than ever to purchasing more sustainable types of seafood. From independent restaurant buyers to the large retailers, the concept of sustainable seafood is more visible in the marketplace than ever before.
We're hoping 2010 will bring even more new energy to the seafood industry and offer unprecedented options for concerned buyers and sellers. Kicking off the year is Seafood Choices Alliance's annual Seafood Summit, held in Paris January 31st-February 2nd. Global representatives from the seafood industry and conservation community will come together for in-depth discussions, presentations, and networking with the goal of making the seafood marketplace environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. The decline of our ocean environments is an issue that touches us all and will increasingly impact future generations. Buyers, sellers, NGOs, and governments must work together to ensure fish and a healthy ocean ecosystem for the future. Seafood Choices Alliance brings all of those constituencies together to do just that.
I'll be at the Paris summit connecting with buyers, producers, and distributors, spreading the word about FishChoice.com. I hope to see some of you there.
Warmest Regards,
Richard Boot.
President, FishChoice.com
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Producer Spotlight
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Lauren Farms Freshwater Farmed Shrimp
 Steve and Dolores Fratesi have been producing farm-raised catfish for over 25 years. They've always had a strong commitment to sustainability, and in 1995, they became intrigued by the potential of growing freshwater prawns in their inland ponds. They partnered with Mississippi State University to investigate the commercial feasibility of the project. When the results looked promising, the Fratesis took the plunge.
Today, their aquaculture company, Lauren Farms, is the largest producer of giant freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in the US, with over 20 acres of ponds committed to farming this culinary delicacy from South Asia. The Fratesis have complete control over the production cycle, as they operate one of only two commercial freshwater prawn hatcheries in the U.S.
 Not content just to grow prawn themselves, the couple has been very active in promoting the development of a commercially viable freshwater prawn industry. They founded the US Freshwater Prawn & Shrimp Growers Association, Inc., where Steve currently serves as a director and Dolores serves as Secretary/Treasurer.
Steve is a visionary who sees the need for large-scale, viable sources of seafood from sustainable, non-polluting sources. Freshwater prawns are delicious, safe and environmentally-friendly. The shrimp ponds at Lauren Farms are self-contained, ensuring that whether catfish or prawns, they have little influence on the surrounding environment. US farmed shrimp, raised inland in contained ponds, and US farmed freshwater prawns recently received a green or "best choice" ranking from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. Log on to FishChoice.com to source
Lauren Farms shrimp.
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Key Ranking Changes
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The biannual updates from The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program bring some important changes for FishChoice.com users who have registered using Seafood Watch, Blue Ocean Institute, FishWise and Sea Choice. In addition to the new "Green" ranking for inland, closed system, US farmed shrimp, and US farmed freshwater prawns, US-farmed Coho salmon raised in closed systems became the first farmed salmon to receive a "green" or "best choice" ranking. In addition to closed system farming having minimal impact on the environment, the feed ratio of closed system Coho is lower than for other farmed salmon, resulting in less pressure on wild fish stocks. Log on to FishChoice.com to locate the first contained farmed Coho salmon to be listed, Sweet Spring Aquaculture of Washington state.
In this round of updates, Seafood Watch also downgraded the Alaskan Pollock fishery from "green" to "yellow" citing declining numbers, concerns about seafloor damage, and impact on other species. However, some aspects of the fishery's management are considered sound. You will notice that all Pollock products on FishChoice.com have been changed to reflect this change in rankings.
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FishChoice.com User Hints and Ideas
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Forward the Product Details
FishChoice.com gives you a number of options once you find a product you are interested in: you can contact the supplier using the easy online form, use the contact information to contact the supplier directly or, use the "forward the product details" feature to send information to your distributor, your procurement team or your retail customer (if you are a distributor). The "forward product details" feature can be used by all FishChoice.com users to streamline the process of getting sustainable seafood products:
If you are a chef or retailer:
The "forward product details" feature makes it easy to show your distributor which product you want and gives them the information to quickly get it for you.
If you are a corporate buyer:
The "forward product details" feature makes it quick and easy to give the information about a product from FishChoice.com to your store buyers or procurement team.
If you are a distributor:
The "forward product details" feature makes it easy to show product details to your customer before you order it for them.
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