For nearly 20 years, the Tennessee Aquarium has been dazzling visitors with huge catfish, colorful trout, and myriads of beautiful reef fish. As guests explore each exhibit, they discover information about each species, their habitats and conservation status. Many people are surprised to learn how many species are threatened or endangered.
Commercial fishing has pushed some species to the limits of survival. While the Aquarium’s exhibits are representations of the natural world, the amount of fish in the ocean has diminished rapidly in the past 50 years, says Dr. Anna George, director of the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. “One-third of all fished species have collapsed globally. That means these fish are now at least 90 percent below their historic maximum populations. The time to act has come if we want the ocean to remain healthy.”
To address the issue of declining fish populations, the Aquarium is collaborating with celebrity chef Alton Brown to launch Serve & Protect, a seafood program designed to offer appetizing solutions.
“The number one answer to this problem is education,” Brown says in a press release issued by the Aquarium. “Americans tend to eat a lot of a very few fish species. And there’s a lot more out there than tuna, salmon and grouper.” For that reason, Brown is working on a locally focused sustainable seafood effort that begins at the Aquarium. Visitors will learn about select species on display and then discover new ways to prepare these offerings at home. Brown is developing recipes specifically for this program and providing information about how to purchase sustainable seafood at local markets.
Brown hopes the “see it, buy it, cook it and eat it” approach will bring people to where they’re not only involved in understanding the fish, their habitats and what’s sustainable but also putting food on their plates that hasn’t been there before. “It’s about opening doors rather than closing them. Instead of saying, ‘You can’t have that,’ I like to ask, ‘Have you tried this?’”
Serve & Protect will begin on September 22 with a sold-out event. Greenlife Grocery will provide guests with appetizers in the IMAX Great Hall. Next, Brown will host a live cooking demonstration in the IMAX 3D Theater. Then, a seafood dinner prepared by chefs from Chattanooga restaurants will be served at the Aquarium. Aquarium experts, chefs and local growers will provide additional insight about the meal. On September 23 and 24, the public will be able to participate in a Chattanooga “dine around.” Local chefs will put their own touch on recipes that feature the highlighted species in the program, including rainbow trout, channel catfish, American lobster, oysters, and yellow tailed snapper.
Restaurants participating in the Serve & Protect initiative include 212 Market, Bluewater Grille, Broad Street Grille, East Bistro & Bar, Hennen’s, Porter’s Steakhouse, St. John’s Restaurant and Table 2. Brown believes this opportunity to connect with local restaurants is an important step in sustainability. “I will be working with all of the chefs and waitstaffs, because a lot of the selling of sustainable seafood is in the education and narrative,” he says. “Then we’re going to turn it over to these chefs to put their creativity on display and show the real culinary possibilities of these fish.”
Brown will wrap up his sustainable seafood school at the Chattanooga Market on September 25 by hosting the Cast Iron Cook-off. The annual event challenges chefs to purchase ingredients from local farmers at the market and then prepare a dish on site within a specified amount of time. They’re provided with the protein, which in this case will be a sustainable seafood item. Brown says he’s excited about seeing the results of this fish frenzy. Brown also plans to serve up information highlighting the health benefits of sustainably caught seafood.
“Obesity is the number one killer of people in the United States. I think the answer to that is to eat more seafood,” Brown says. “It’s a better source of protein than what Americans are used to eating.” Beyond the launch event, George hopes Serve & Protect will motivate people to take action. She encourages people to purchase seafood caught and raised in U.S. fisheries (which she says are among the best-managed and regulated fisheries in the world), to ask the waitstaff at restaurants where their fish was caught and how it was harvested, to talk with grocers about how to prepare delicious seafood, and to tell friends, family members and others about why sustainable seafood matters.
“This is about the health of the ocean. The ocean impacts our lives in many ways, and this is one way in which we can impact the ocean. We have a choice about what to eat, and that choice can have a positive impact.”
To learn more about the Aquarium’s Serve & Protect program, visit tnaqua.org.