January 13, 2005

TOP VANCOUVER RESTAURANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN VANCOUVER AQUARIUM'S "OCEAN WISE" INITIATIVE

Vancouver , BC : The Vancouver Aquarium and C Restaurant are pleased to announce their commitment to "Ocean Wise", a new program dedicated to making environmentally responsible seafood choices easy for consumers and restaurants alike. The announcement was made on January 13 at C Restaurant, the Ocean Wise program's founding restaurant partner. The Ocean Wise program will encourage restaurants to provide more sustainable seafood dishes and make it easy for diners to choose restaurants and dishes that have as small an impact on the oceans as possible.

"The Vancouver Aquarium has supported a related initiative for the past four years in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium," said Patrick O'Callaghan, Vice-President, Conservation and Education. "However, we created Ocean Wise to cater to the particular needs of Vancouver diners, who are among the most environmentally aware in North America ."    

In order for restaurants to participate in the Ocean Wise program, they must be dedicated to a process of continuous improvement in the seafood they serve, removing unsustainable seafood items from their menu and replacing them with sustainable alternatives wherever possible. Any restaurant that has at least one seafood item on their menu can participate in the program, and those that have four or more can work toward Gold status. For C Restaurant, this program is an extension of its long-standing commitment to excellence.  

"As a restaurateur committed to working with only premium seafood products, it has become fundamental to be aware of how how our fish is grown, caught and supplied, so we can continue to nurture the variety and quality of seafood we have today," said C owner Harry Kambolis. " At C, Robert Clark, our Executive Chef, has become wholly dedicated to sourcing products that provide the finest quality and are at the same time responsibly managed at the source. My hope is that the entire food service industry will develop these philosophies, which we call 21st Century Responsible. "

Many important factors are considered when determining which seafood is sustainable or not.   These factors include overfishing, which is the removal of too many fish from the sea and not allowing them enough time to re-populate before the next catch; bycatch, the capture of animals that were not intended to be part of the catch, such as sea turtle, dolphins, seabirds and sponges; and habitat degradation, which involves fishing and producing fish in ways that negatively affects the quality of water, reefs and other ocean habitats.

The Ocean Wise program will list participating restaurants on a "Preferred Restaurant" guide available at participating restaurants and other locations, including the Vancouver Aquarium, and on the Ocean Wise web site. The Vancouver Aquarium's own in-house catering department and café will also be an Ocean Wise partner, and several other Vancouver restaurants have expressed interest in joining C Restaurant as partners in the Ocean Wise program.

More Information: Ocean Wise Fact Sheet

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For further information, please contact:

Brenda Jones, Acting Public Relations Manager

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre           

604-659-3516