Grizz, I'm sure they will be aware now! Sent mine in....

an email just recieved:

Thank you for your emails. We have removed the Hoh River Steelhead from our menu in order to address your concerns and validate our research and understanding on this important topic. I would like the opportunity to discuss this further with the editor of your club's newsletter Dana Bottcher. I can be contacted at (425) 455-3948 ext. 204.

Regards,
Tom Lavaris
Exec. V.P., Operations
Schwartz Brothers Restaurants

Ditto..

That didnt take long for them to see the light. Looks like a lack of education/ignorance of the issue to me...we should set up a boycott outside of Pike Place on a busy weekend day if they are selling wild steelhead...

WOW, GOOD FOR YOU GUYS, AND GOOD FOR THEM

you guys kick a$$. got their attention quickly and now there is one less place to sell wild steelhead.

Good to hear. Hopefully everything goes through. Will anyone be able to check and verify the menu has been updated?

I'm in, just let me know when and I'll be there!

Thats great to hear they replied. Thanks to everyones effort.
It is still listed on the online menu.

E-mail sent.

Hopefully this will be followed up with well reasoned discussion and dialogue (with the lady that left her number and was posted online) so as to educate the buyers as to the plight of wild anadromous fish in the Northwest.

Just a couple days ago i talked my wife out of the swordfish at a different restaurant because they didn't know how it was caught...no high fives were in order then.

Seems like an opportunity to help our cause so let's hold the high fives till we have done something lasting.

Still it's a good start.

RVW

I also sent an email indicating that I appreciated their fast action but that I noticed that Hoh River Steelhead is still listed on the menu online. I indicated that I would be boycotting until such time as that change. As I work at the south end of Lake Union, I'll make a run over to Chandler's today to determine if it is actually off the menu.

I've yet to recieve a response ...

I can confirm that Hoh River Steelhead is no longer being served at Chandlers Crab house.

Please, everyone call, write, support Schwartz Brothers/Chandlers with their decision


Tom Lavaris <TLavaris@SchwartzBros.com> wrote:

Subject: FW: Wild Steelhead Request and Information
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:25:26 -0700
From: "Tom Lavaris" <TLavaris@SchwartzBros.com>
To: <wscmembership@yahoo.com>,
<danabottcher@mcleodusa.net>

March 19, 2007
Gentlemen,

I can see from your groups attention to this matter you are all very passionate about it. At Schwartz Brothers Restaurants we too are passionate about what we do and how we do it. Responsible stewardship is very important to us.

By using hatchery generated steelhead we felt we were being "responsible" for the product we chose. Obviously the information we had wasn't complete. We have stopped serving this product and unless something changes we don't intend to use it in the future.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Wild Steelhead Coalition [mailto:wscmembership@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 5:21 PM
To: Operations
Subject: Wild Steelhead Request and Information

Mr. Tom Lavaris
Executive V.P., Operations
Schwartz Brothers Restaurants.
1818 N. Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98103-9097

Dear Mr. Lavaris,

We are writing you to respectfully request that Schwartz Brothers Restaurants take and keep wild steelhead, especially "Hoh River Wild Steelhead", off of the menu now and in the future at Chandlers Crab House and your other fine restaurants. The Wild Steelhead Coalition (WSC) is an organization that is dedicated to increasing the return of wild steelhead to the rivers and waters of the Pacific Northwest. The WSC has been working to ban the intentional harvest of wild steelhead, a state symbol, since our inception in 2000, and selling them for food defeats these efforts.

We are also writing to you to provide some information regarding the plight of wild steelhead on the Hoh River especially, and offer to partner with you to help preserve this icon for the future.

In recent years the Hoh River wild steelhead have not met state and tribal determined "spawner escapement goals" (the number of adult steelhead that escape fishers and actually have a chance to spawn). The primary cause for failing to meet the spawner escapement goal has been harvest - sport and tribal fishers have simply caught and killed more steelhead than warranted by recent steelhead returns. The Hoh River is one of only a handful of rivers in Washington that have steelhead run sizes that approach anything close to their escapement goals, yet intense harvest fisheries have meant that Hoh River steelhead spawner escapements have missed the escapement goals in 7 of the last 13 years. Members of our organization and many other anglers are concerned that the Hoh River's intense harvest fisheries are unsustainable, and we have been voicing those concerns with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife since our organization's inception.

In Washington, steelhead are categorized as a game fish and not a food fish. Almost all of the wild steelhead populations in Washington have been classified as either endangered or threatened with extinction by the National Marine Fisheries Service. It is illegal for anyone except a treaty
tribe to sell steelhead. Your purchase of wild steelhead has served to hasten the demise of this noble fish.

The Wild Steelhead Coalition believes that as an environmentally conscious northwest company, you will stop providing a market for wild steelhead and join us in our fight to preserve this precious natural resource. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you or other company representatives to share further information regarding the status of wild steelhead and will call next week to schedule a mutually agreeable time to meet. This is a win-win opportunity and we look forward to your partnership.

Thank you,

Wild Steelhead Coalition
Richard Simms
President
http://www.wildsteelheadcoalition.com

Email sent.. Thanking him for his actions!

Think they really quit serving it or did they just run out ??? Just curious, when they sell big wild steelhead at Pike street Market are they really high priced ?? say compaired to Salmon

I think just as many e-mails thanking them for taking Hoh River steelhead off the menu as for having it there in the first place are in order...looks like as soon as they were informed about the issue, they stepped up.

Thumbs up to Schwarz Brothers Restraurants.

Fish on...

Todd

Who wants to go to lunch at one of their restaurants in the next week or so to show them that good stewardship pays off? I'd be happy to organize a group.

Good call on sending them the note, I will do so Now we can work on the others!