Hungry? In this issue, we examine the ways we buy and consume seafood, how Sea Grant helps keep it safe, and how a seed planted in Baltimore is helping grow the Greek aquaculture industry. We introduce new staff and fellows, and reconnect with one living in Michigan but still looking at Chesapeake menhaden.
Buying seafood used to mean picking up fresh catch from local fishermen. With the push for verified sustainable seafood, will the personal connection between customers return?
By Brennen Jensen
Buying seafood used to mean picking out fresh rockfish and oysters from a local market right next to where the boats came in. Now that a buy-local movement is taking hold, will customers forego the grocery-store salmon in favor of fare sourced from local waters?
How Sea Grant played a role in keeping seafood safe
By Rona Kobell
In 1959, NASA teamed up with Pillsbury to prepare food that wouldn’t spoil in space. When those efforts expanded to seafood, Sea Grant and its Extension specialists were there to help processors, restaurants, and fishermen keep their catch safe. Those safety protocols created a whole new customer base for protein from the sea.
It’s a long way from the murky waters of Baltimore, Maryland, to the clear blue Mediterranean Sea. But thanks to Maryland Sea Grant funding almost three decades ago, Constantinos Mylonas is using techniques honed at the Inner Harbor to grow fish – and with it an aquaculture industry – on the island of Crete in Greece.
