Originally published in Charleston City Paper, August 3, 2005

Sustaining and Satisfying: Local seafood initiative finds a place at the table

Jason A. Zwiker

“Mahi-mahi and wahoo just came off the boat,” says Robert Stehling. “We’ll have it on the plate tonight.” As chef-owner of Hominy Grill, Stehling takes full advantage of the local catch – a direct benefit of living in a coastal community – to provide diners with the freshest seafood available.

“With local seafood, we know who caught it, where it was caught, how long ago it was caught,” he adds. “These are the people we know locally. We see their boats on the water and we know the places where they fish. You just get the product that way.”

“It parallels the philosophy of the restaurant. One of the tenets of being a neighborhood restaurant is to buy local.”

Buying local and being aware of the state of local fisheries are what the Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SSI) is all about. Formerly known as the Sustainable Seafood Education Project, SSI was launched in October 2002 as a collaboration between the South Carolina Aquarium, Coastal Conservation League, Johnson & Wales University, University of South Carolina’s Baruch Institute, and 20 top names in area restaurants Today, nearly 50 local restaurants participate in the Sustainable Seafood Initiative, along with community and retail partners such as Charleston Cooks!, the Charleston County Library, and Earth Fare.

“The idea of sustainable seafood is to make people aware of the pressures on the industry,” Stehling adds. “Once they are aware, they can vote with their orders at the restaurants. If enough customers choose not to order a fish that they have learned is declining in population due to over-fishing, restaurants won’t keep it on the menu.”

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