Mackerel
Amy Kumler
Plump, meaty, mild-tasting Atlantic mackerel give us a flavorful way to eat lower on the ocean food chain and ease pressure on apex predators like tuna and swordfish. Choosing these small, schooling fish also lets us avoid high levels of mercury and other toxins found in larger fish. Some call them bait. We call them delicious.
Atlantic mackerel are caught by hook and line to minimize bycatch and maximize quality, while supporting a community of traditional small-boat fishermen in Santoña, Spain.
Every spring, the fish migrate through the Bay of Biscay in a silvery rush. Family boats set out at dawn to cast their lines into massive schools of mackerel, and fish until they’ve caught the day’s supply. From dockside auctions, the mackerel are shipped on ice along the coast to our packers, Perez Lafuente, a fifth-generation company that specializes in responsibly harvested seafood.
The Red Thread
To catch Atlantic mackerel, Santoña’s fishermen use anzuelos, individual lines with up to 30 hooks wrapped with red wool, which resemble the tiny crustaceans mackerels love—meaning live bait isn’t necessary and is left to feed other fish. Because the schools of mackerel are so large, and because each fish must bite the line to be caught, the anzuelo ensures that there isn’t a lot of bycatch, unlike with trawlers or purse seine nets. Nothing is caught by mistake, whereas nets scoop up everything. Catching by hook and line translates to better quality, too, since the fish are released gently into bins rather than being crushed at the bottom of a net.
Salmon Conservation
Strange as it may sound, we believe harvesting and eating wild salmon in the right numbers, from the right places, can actually help save them.
The Soul Who Swims
I wonder if a vision of her life is passing before her as she lies here with that one unblinking eye staring up at the enormous trees overhead and the sunlit sky beyond them.
Salmon Dreams
At night I dream of salmon gliding through heavy seas, turning toward a faint scent of their birth rivers; in brackish bays feeling the pull of lunar motion and a taste of sweet...
The Secretly Sexy Organism That Might Just Save the Planet
When you write about sustainability and seafood, you have to revisit your definition of sexy.
What are Salmon For?
And essay from biologist, activist and co-founder of the Wild Fish Conservancy, Bill McMillan.
The Simple Customs of Salmon Nation
Liz Woody writes about how salmon were the first to teach us of wealth.
Regenerative Ocean Farming: The (Least) Deadliest Catch
Bren Smith's article talks about the power of restorative ocean farming and delicious food grown for both people and the planet.
A Natural History of Pacific Salmon
Jim Lichatowich is a fishery biologist and has spent the last 30 years working on Pacific salmon conservation.
