Reg Tupper says that although there are bigger fish to fry, pink salmon are every bit as tasty as the more famous members of the salmon family. Better still, there are plenty more of these fish in the sea and are a much more sustainable option for seafood lovers to put on their plates than, say, sockeye or coho.
Tupper is the business development officer for the Pacific Salmon Foundation, which is hosting a free public barbecue later this month as part of the Pink Salmon Festival to draw more attention to the overlooked and undercooked fish he says suffers from a bit of a PR problem.
In the order of species-priority governed largely by commercial fishermen, sockeye have always been the chief commercial fish while chinook and coho are very much the target for sports fishermen, said Tupper. They are sort of the film stars of the industry and we hit them pretty hardeverybody wants to go out and get that Big Kahuna chinook. The others, like the chum and the pink, are kind of looked down upon. They dont have the same publicity the others have but they are every bit as nutritious.
He said pinks, also known as humpback salmon or humpies, are the smallest and most abundant type of salmon in the Pacific and can be sustainably harvested because their population, unlike other salmon species, are still in the pink. Purchasing pink can also help support B.C. fisheries workers who, despite last years unexpectedly high sockeye season that saw 25 million return to the Fraser River, have struggled over the last decade.
We want the public to come out and enjoy them and eat while learning something about them and then go home and put them on their shopping list because theyre less expensive than other fish but theyre just as good, said Tupper.
The biennial barbecues, first held in 2009, are held every two years to coincide with the pink salmon spawning season. An estimated 17.5 million pink salmon are projected to return to the Fraser this summer and a couple of tonnes of them, donated by Jim Pattisons Canfisco seafood company, will be available for sampling from noon to 5 p.m. on Aug. 28 in Kitsilanos Hadden Park. The inaugural fish fest fed around 3,000 people and Tupper expects even larger crowds this year for an event that will also feature face painting, live entertainment and educational displays. A team of sous-chefs will be frying up the fish under the watch of C Restaurants executive chef Robert Clark, a long-time seafood sustainability advocate who recently helped the Vancouver Aquarium develop its Ocean Wise educational program.
Our message to the public is that we as consumers have the power to ensure that salmon have a future for us to enjoy, said the foundations president, Brian Riddell. Salmon are a keystone species in British Columbia from a cultural, environmental and economic perspective. Pink salmon have the ability to serve as an abundant human food source while also adequately supporting ecosystems that depend on them for survival. Pink salmon can truly be a sustainable seafood in practice and not just words.
Twitter: @flematic
