SeaChoice Sustainable Seafood Champion: RainCoast Trading

Albacore Tuna, Uncanned

Key concepts: seafood labeling, seafood traceability, BC albacore tuna

One of the biggest hurdles as a concerned seafood lover, when presented with the Seachoice sustainable seafood wallet card, is to discover how and where seafood is harvested. We read that BC trap-caught shrimp is more sustainable than Atlantic trawled shrimp, and than troll-caught tuna is the better choice than is pelagic longline-caught tuna. However, try to ask most fishmongers, grocery stores, and can labels, and we are greeted with blank faces and empty tags. How on earth can we practice sustainability when we have no idea where or how our food arrives on our plate?

Enter RainCoast Trading. This Delta BC owned and operated fishing company produces canned albacore tuna. Their tuna is caught wild in the Pacific Northwest, by hook-and-line fishing practices, and, best of all, the company has had the foresight and initiative to start including this information directly on their can labels(something you hardly ever see on Canadian seafood packaging!).

Why is wild Pacific Northwest tuna a good option? Albacore tuna are highly migratory fish, found in temperate regions of the North and South Pacific, as well as in the Atlantic. While Atlantic stocks are overfished, Pacific tuna stocks are considered to be healthy. Also, the albacore’s migration pattern produces a very high oil content when they pass through BC waters, increasing their flavour and health benefits. This fishery is both healthy in numbers and healthy for consumers, making it a great choice for dinner.

The BC albacore fishery avoids the pitfalls of most tuna fisheries by catching their tuna via a hook-and-line, whereby 12 barbless hooks are trolled behind the fishing boat. This method replaces pelagic longlining, with its huge amounts of bycatch of non-target fish and other species, such as dolphins. Antoher plus is that this fishery catches immature fish. This ensures that mercury levels, always a concern with tuna, are very low, and that the reproducing adults are left to continue making more tuna for the future.

One of the best features of RainCoast Trading, however, is that their cans inform the interested consumer what they are actually buying. For those who want to treat our oceans well, and have sustainability and health in mind, labels can be the most frustrating part of sustainable shopping. RainCoast Trading takes away the barriers and allows us to know what we are buying. Every can they produce has a code, and by sending the company this code, we can trace the fish in every can to the fisherman who caught the tuna.

RainCoast Trading is well ahead of the industry, and a shining example of what sustainable seafood lovers hope the future will someday hold: every seafood product labeled with species, origin, and the path it took to reach your plate.

Editor’s note- I would highly recommend their canned, smoked albacore tuna: on a tuna melt, pizza, or simply for lunch as is. Absolute sustainable deliciousness from our own ocean backyard!

For more information about RainCoast Trading, and to find out where to buy their products, please visit their website.