Stop Eating Wild Steelhead

What do Steelhead, the fish of a thousand casts have to do with the bonefish flat?  Remember, the flat is about all things salty and steelhead spend most of their lives at sea getting bigger.  Unfortunately, these great fish are in trouble.

I came across this site, called Stop Eating Wild Steelhead.  I really like the premise of the group.  It's a grassroots blog that started out as a Facebook site.  They have grown into a site that reports restaurants and stores that sell wild Steelhead.

I'm a big fan of true grassroots movements because I've seen the impact that they can have on our society.  Laws get changed, attitudes get changed when small groups of people who care get involved.

And why shouldn't you eat wild Steelhead?  Numbers of wild Steelhead are down dramatically and more research is needed to determine appropriate take limits.  According to the Web site:

In most rivers up and down the west coast, steelhead are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. On a few remaining rivers where they have not yet been listed, wild steelhead continue to be harvested even though these rivers are not meeting their escapement goals. No matter what marketing hype you may read, these fish are not of a self-sustaining population and we cannot afford to lose any more of them from our rivers.

We need science-based management for these fish.  And we need to stop selling the last of this valuable resource in fish markets and restaurants.  An effective means of doing so is to inform consumers so that they can make an educated decision to not purchase wild steelhead.

So check out the blog and stop eating wild Steelhead.