Welcome to the home of Fish Or Cut Bait. FOCB is being developed to help all of us be better informed about the state of the ocean, the seafood we harvest from it, and what we all can do to make a difference. FOCB is an initiative that was created to answer the question, "What can I do?" in the face of a flood of contradicting claims and evidence regarding the origin of Sustainable Seafood and the facts behind these claims. It's hard to know who to believe, and why they may have made the claim. Mis-information propagates rapidly, leaving us paralyzed or making the wrong decision with best of intentions. The Ocean is a vast resource, capable of sustaining our lives through food, oxygen and water. Without it, we would not be here and would never be able to survive. How we manage this resource is paramount to every living being on this planet. In the upcoming months, FOCB will collect and distribute scientific fact, data, and alert you to various tactics to be aware of when choosing to buy seafood, be it from a restaurant or market. Where legislation has been proposed, we will let you know via email about what you can do, who you can write, and what's at stake. What and how we, the consumer, purchase is the most powerful tool available in shaping our future. If you don't buy it, they can't sell it. While we develop the site, you can receive email updates by sending a request to info@331fish.com. |
Restaurants That Have Taken The Pledge
Please Support Them
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The
Farm-Free Salmon pledge.
In the spring of 2008, the Pacific Fishery Management Council announced the closure of both the commercial and sport fishing for wild Chinook and Coho Salmon for California and Oregon coasts and rivers. The immediate impact of this will cost the west coast over 200 million dollars and over 4,200 jobs. The long term effects could be much greater if we don’t act now.
Fish. restaurant in Sausalito, Ca. is taking the first step by introducing the Farm-Free Salmon pledge. Restaurants and retailers taking this pledge will remove farmed salmon from their menus and shelves using only wild salmon when it is available. By doing this, they will protect the marine food webs that are plundered to support farmed salmon, prevent the waste that open ocean pens produce, and eliminate the possibility of escape of non-native species into our west coast ecosystems while supporting the fishing communities that depend on healthy oceans and wild salmon populations for their future.
Today,
rivers and streams on the Pacific Coast are dammed, degraded, drained,
diverted, buried under silt or otherwise unable to support abundant
salmon populations. Consequently, some salmon populations that once
supported communities along our Pacific coast are severely imperiled to
the point where numerous fish populations are now protected by the
federal and/or state Endangered Species Acts.
The loss of
Pacific salmon populations has damaged coastal and tribal communities
all along our coast and inland to Idaho and Nevada. Across the
country, families are faced with the choice of paying high prices for
wild salmon (if they can be found), or buying farmed Atlantic salmon of
dubious quality and nutritional value, or not eating salmon at all.
Commercial fishermen have been forced to fish in unsafe weather in
order to make boat, insurance, and related payments. Over the last
couple of decades, the Pacific Coast commercial fishing fleet has
declined from more than 10,000 salmon fishermen to 1,000.
Many of these remaining fishing men and women work second jobs in to order to make ends meet. Native American tribes can no longer depend on the salmon for sustenance as they always have; as a result, these people are suffering skyrocketing increases in heart disease and diabetes. As salmon populations decline, more and more of their food now comes from the grocery store – it is high in starch, fats and sugars.
But salmon are very resilient! If you restore healthy rivers and habitat and give them a half a chance, they will bounce back. Case in point: Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon nearly went extinct in the early 1990’s; their numbers had dwindled to a mere 186 spawning adults.
Once they were protected under the Endangered Species Act, measures were undertaken to restore habitats in the Sacramento River. Dams were modified to provide cooler water for incubating salmon eggs. A nearby mine that was leaking acid into the Sacramento River was cleaned up. Another dam that was blocking salmon migration was opened. Within a few years of these improvements, winter run Chinook salmon numbers had increased to over 8,000 spawning adults.
The winter run of Sacramento River Chinook salmon is still imperiled; we can restore these populations if we choose to protect and enhance their freshwater habitats.
Many of these remaining fishing men and women work second jobs in to order to make ends meet. Native American tribes can no longer depend on the salmon for sustenance as they always have; as a result, these people are suffering skyrocketing increases in heart disease and diabetes. As salmon populations decline, more and more of their food now comes from the grocery store – it is high in starch, fats and sugars.
But salmon are very resilient! If you restore healthy rivers and habitat and give them a half a chance, they will bounce back. Case in point: Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon nearly went extinct in the early 1990’s; their numbers had dwindled to a mere 186 spawning adults.
Once they were protected under the Endangered Species Act, measures were undertaken to restore habitats in the Sacramento River. Dams were modified to provide cooler water for incubating salmon eggs. A nearby mine that was leaking acid into the Sacramento River was cleaned up. Another dam that was blocking salmon migration was opened. Within a few years of these improvements, winter run Chinook salmon numbers had increased to over 8,000 spawning adults.
The winter run of Sacramento River Chinook salmon is still imperiled; we can restore these populations if we choose to protect and enhance their freshwater habitats.
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"Fish Or Cut Bait"
Meaning
Either continue in a productive manner or desist entirely. Similar in meaning to 'put up or shut up', or the US vulgarism 'sh*t or get off the pot'.
Origin
"Fish or Cut Bait" is a phrase is of US origin. To cut bait means to stop fishing. It appears to have been introduced to the public consciousness, and may well have been coined by, US Judge Levi Hubbell. It came up in 1853, in a legal dispute over land ownership between US Attorney General Caleb Cushing and a William Hungerford. Cushing was displeased with Hubbell's conduct of the case an threatened to have him impeached. Hubbell's response was:
"Judge Cushing has commenced a suit in the United States Court. Judge Cushing must either fish or cut bait."