Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / The Squid You Eat Is a Mystery, Seafood Mislabeling Explained

Transcript

The Squid You Eat Is a Mystery, Seafood Mislabeling Explained · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  When you order calamari on a restaurant, the menu usually
• 0:02
  tells you one thing, it's squid.
• 0:04
  We know that calamari is squid.
• 0:06
  But scientists know that there are more than 300 species of squid living in
• 0:10
  the Ocean, and most seafood labels do not tell you which one you're eating.
• 0:14
  Even on a menu, it won't tell you what type of squid you're eating, but when
• 0:17
  you order fish, it'll tell you what is salmon, or it'll tell you a specific
• 0:20
  salmon or cohost salmon or the type of cod like it's black cod or atlantic cod.
• 0:24
  There's all these different types of species of each of the types
• 0:27
  of foods that you're eating.
• 0:27
  Why aren't they identifying squid?
• 0:30
  And most seafood labels don't tell you which one you're eating.
• 0:33
  So in many cases, restaurants, grocery stores, and importers simply label
• 0:37
  a product as squid or even calamari.
• 0:40
  So the squid on the plate could come from multiple species, different oceans,
• 0:44
  and completely different fisheries.
• 0:46
  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekday Ocean news updates.
• 0:50
  If you care about staying informed about the Ocean every weekday, hit
• 0:54
  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's story.
• 0:58
  Key question for today.
• 0:59
  Why is squid one of the hardest seafood products to trace?
• 1:03
  Shouldn't be.
• 1:04
  We know a lot about squid.
• 1:06
  We know that there's over 300 species.
• 1:08
  We should be able to track where those species go.
• 1:10
  We have the technology, we have the ability.
• 1:13
  We just don't do it.
• 1:15
  So seafood products are often heavily processed before they reach consumers.
• 1:18
  They're commonly sold as calamari, squid rings, fried seafood
• 1:22
  platters, frozen seafood mixes.
• 1:25
  Processing removes most identifying features 'cause a lot of
• 1:28
  times you're just using rings.
• 1:29
  That's what you see when you have calamari or seafood rings, right?
• 1:32
  Grilled calamari.
• 1:33
  So for example, when a whole squid is caught, scientists can identify
• 1:36
  the species using features such as body shape, fin size and placement.
• 1:40
  Tentacle length and color patterns.
• 1:42
  But when squid is cut into rings or chopped into pieces, those
• 1:46
  features obviously disappear.
• 1:48
  So once it is breaded and fried as calamari, visual identification
• 1:52
  becomes nearly impossible.
• 1:54
  I mean, you look at Calamari, all it is is just the bread and maybe you
• 1:57
  see the rings, but you can't tell unless you actually get the DNA,
• 2:00
  whether it's a specific species or not, even for trained seafood expects.
• 2:04
  So this means seafood buyers and restaurants often rely entirely on
• 2:08
  paperwork provided by the suppliers.
• 2:10
  And I question sometimes whether they actually care.
• 2:13
  And if that information isn't incomplete or inaccurate, it
• 2:15
  becomes very difficult to verify.
• 2:17
  So you can have something on the sheet saying it's one squid.
• 2:19
  It's actually another squid.
• 2:20
  But you have no idea of knowing unless you do the DNA barcoding.
• 2:23
  So the research using DNA barcoding has shown that seafood products often contains
• 2:28
  species that are not listed on the label.
• 2:31
  In several studies, squid products marketed as a single species were found to
• 2:35
  contain multiple species mixed together.
• 2:37
  How does that happen?
• 2:39
  And why does that happen?
• 2:40
  Squid fisheries are some of the fastest growing fisheries in the world.
• 2:44
  They involve hundreds of species in industrial fleets from multiple countries,
• 2:48
  large fishing operations on the High Seas.
• 2:51
  That makes it very difficult to stop.
• 2:53
  Some squid fisheries operate far from their national coastlines,
• 2:57
  particularly in areas of the Pacific and the South Atlantic.
• 3:00
  These distant water fleets can include dozens or even hundreds
• 3:03
  of vessels operating together.
• 3:04
  Sometimes using powerful lights at night to attract the squid to the surface.
• 3:09
  So here's an example.
• 3:10
  Off the coast of Argentina, there is a squid species that's heavily
• 3:13
  fished and it's fished sustainably and managed by the Argentian government
• 3:17
  within its exclusive economic zone.
• 3:19
  But at some point during their life history, that squid will
• 3:22
  cross the Exclusive Economic Zone, in the EEZ, into the High Seas.
• 3:26
  Once it crosses into the high Seas, Argentina doesn't have any
• 3:29
  authority over that management.
• 3:31
  And so the distance water fleet, often Chinese boats, so I've been reading
• 3:34
  up on, which has the largest distance water fleet, will line up along the
• 3:38
  border of that Exclusive Economic Zone.
• 3:40
  And once those squid come across, they try and catch as many as possible.
• 3:44
  So by the time those squid species reached the restaurant menu, the original catch
• 3:47
  information may have been passed through several companies and several countries.
• 3:51
  Every step adds another opportunity for information to be lost.
• 3:56
  Squid highlights several challenges that may affect
• 3:58
  seafood products at the same time.
• 4:00
  First, fisheries management for squid is often weak.
• 4:03
  Unlike many fish stocks, squid populations are rarely managed with strict
• 4:07
  quotas or detailed stock assessments.
• 4:09
  Second, squid fisheries often operate across international waters where
• 4:13
  enforcement is more difficult.
• 4:15
  Hopefully, the High Seas will allow that better enforcement to happen.
• 4:18
  Third labeling rules allow seafood to be sold under broad market names
• 4:23
  such as squid, rather than listing the exact species or even calamari.
• 4:26
  Believe it or not.
• 4:27
  So for consumers, that means the label provides very little information
• 4:31
  about what they're actually eating.
• 4:33
  And for scientists studying seafood supply chains, squid is one of the clearest
• 4:37
  examples of how global seafood trade can become opaque and difficult to track.
• 4:41
  Now tomorrow we're gonna be talking to Dr. Marine Cusa, who's a fisheries
• 4:46
  scientist, a Marine scientist from Oceana.
• 4:49
  She also is a Pew fellow and she studies fisheries supply chains.
• 4:53
  She studies aquaculture fish feed.
• 4:55
  She's been on the podcast before for talking about fish feed for aquaculture
• 4:59
  and sustainable and certified ones and how that's necessary.
• 5:02
  Tomorrow she's going to be featured on the podcast.
• 5:04
  She studies seafood traceability and squid fisheries.
• 5:06
  She's done a lot of research on this.
• 5:08
  And her research shows how global squid supply chains work and how
• 5:12
  little information consumers often receive about the seafood they eat.
• 5:16
  So if you don't wanna miss that interview, hit that follow button right now so
• 5:19
  that you get tomorrow's interview.
• 5:21
  But also share this episode with someone that you think would need it.
• 5:24
  If you think they need to learn more about seafood traceability, or they
• 5:27
  want to know what the problems are out in the Ocean and they wanna help
• 5:29
  solve it, I'm here educating people.
• 5:31
  I'm here for you.
• 5:32
  This episode, this podcast is here for people who want to know about
• 5:35
  the Ocean so I wanna inform you as much as possible and make it
• 5:38
  entertaining as well, which I hope I do.
• 5:40
  But I want you to share this with somebody who you think will get value out of
• 5:43
  it and you think should know about it.
• 5:44
  But that's it for today's episode.
• 5:46
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
• 5:49
  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
• 5:50
  If you want to give feedback, you can do so.
• 5:52
  Go to speak up for blue.com/feedback.
• 5:54
  I want to hear your comments, questions, concern, speak up for blue.com/feedback.
• 5:59
  Have a great day.
• 6:00
  I'll talk to you tomorrow and happy conservation.