Plenty more fish in the sea?

Demand for seafood is growing, but over-fishing poses a challenge for the region's restaurants as they try to find the supply.

With the seafood market booming worldwide, new challenges and opportunities are being created for foodservice operators, wholesalers, producers and manufacturers.

Sustainability was the central theme at the Fish International 2008 exhibition, held in Germany last month.

"Three-quarters of the oceans' fish stocks are either fished to their limit or in decline," said chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Rupert Howes, speaking at the event.

"The world's population is growing at a fast rate and consumes more and more fish and seafood. It is clear that we have to preserve fish stocks to secure supplies, safeguard livelihoods and maintain the functionality of the oceans' ecosystems," he continued.

An independent NGO, which has developed criteria for sustainable fishing, the MSC runs the only internationally recognised eco-certification and labelling programme for fisheries.

"To date, 26 fisheries worldwide are certified to MSC standard," said Howes, adding that demand for certified, sustainable seafood is at an all-time high and is steadily rising worldwide.

"Demonstrating good environmental practice also boosts relations with the industry, community, conservation groups and the public," he said.

Regional perspective

Executive chef at the Renaissance Dubai Hotel, Andreas Kurfurst, agrees with Howes. He has noticed a trend for more "ethical eating" among customers.

"People are more interested in where food is coming from - how it's grown; how it's harvested - it's not just plain eating any more," he confirms.

"I believe that worldwide we're not really controlling [fishing practices] enough to sustain the cycle because, at the end of the day it's a business. It makes money - who cares about what happens five generations from now?"

Kurfurst says that hammour is a prime example of how over-fishing is affecting the supply of local fish.

"Hammour is very difficult to get these days," he confirms. "I think the government is looking at protecting it, so you can't get hammour under a certain size. In some restaurants they have baby hammour on the menu, but if you kill all the young fish, the species will die out because you break the [breeding] cycle," he says.

While the Renaissance tries to be responsible about where its fish come, commercial pressures cannot be ignored, as Kurfurst explains: "We are running a business - we have to look at prices, too, and on a day-to-day level, all this is pushing the prices up, as well as making certain fish more difficult to source."

There has been a notable increase in the popularity of seafood in recent years, according to the Renaissance. Each month the hotel orders 1000kg of frozen lobster for its Spice Island outlet alone, as well as up to 900kg of smoked salmon for its various outlets and banqueting events, and has just launched a Reef and Beef buffet in its Sails restaurant to meet the demand it sees for seafood among guests and Dubai residents.

"Seafood is associated with healthy eating. It's less fat and it's full of Omega 3 and other nutrients, and as people are getting more health-conscious, consumption is increasing a lot," says Kurfurst.

The hotel's director of food and beverage Hassan Yazbek says the lobster station at Spice Island is the biggest hit with guests.

"The chefs tell me that sometimes we get through 50 kilos of lobster a night there for that one station. And we keep up with the product, despite the higher cost - to us it's value added but it brings customers back so we won't trim anything out of this package just because lobster is rare or becoming more expensive," he states.

Like Kurfurst, he is also concerned with the impact of environmental problems on the fish industry.

"There is going to continue to be a lot of demand, but the supply is diminishing. One study I read recently, published in the US, said that by 2050 we may not have fish anywhere in the world," says Yazbek.