Just got off the phone with Denny, the owner of Wildfire in Port Angeles.

He informed me that steelhead is not a regular menu item in his establishment, but that his seafood supplier ("Preston") had an "extra" fish when he delivered an order of clams, and talked Denny into buying it.

Denny was unaware of how steelhead are harvested in this area, and after I explained to him that the Forks area rivers didn't make their escapement goals (due mainly to the gillnets) he said he would never serve net caught steelhead of any kind, or any wild steelhead in his restaurant ever again...

Kudos to Denny and his staff at Wildfire for doing the right thing!

Nice job LoweDown......

If the fish are coming out of the Quillayute, Queets, Hoh, mainstream Quinault, Humptulips, or Chehalis, there's no way for them to catch "only hatchery fish"..."wild" just means "caught in a net" rather than grown in a farm...and by this time of year the proportion of wild fish in the catch is probably more than half, and in a few weeks will be 90%...

Fish on...

Todd

Fantastic work Bret! Educate one a day and by the end of the year a good amount of restaurants off the buy side of this equation.

Seems to me that the grass roots approach works well to educate chefs and restauranteurs. Just curious, does the WSC have a program in place to educate the public?

Thanks for your extra mile effort!!!! My wife and I will now "Continue" to be repeat customers. Woodfired Oven done Steak, Yukon Gold smashed Tatters, and Veggies cannot be beat.

Somebody mentioned or asked if WSC has an "Education Program", and that gave me a idea since I am somewhat active in NOP PSA, get PSA (or Even CCA Possibly) involved in developing one, especially a "Fact Sheet" that could be passed out to eating establishments, the meat manager at grocery stores, etc., etc. Would it even be better if PSA, CCA, and WSC got their collective heads together and developed a "Joint Education Program???" And not just the endangered topic, but the tourist value economically for the Olympic Peninsula. It might also demonstrate a far larger "Front of Voters" to our Elected Critters that they should probably START paying attention to what's important to us, and not Star Kist.

It's good to know people are educating restaurants on the plight of the wild steelhead.

Another angle we all might consider taking when writing or otherwise contacting the proprietors of these businesses is the fact that many of the people who dine in Port Angeles restaurants on a given day are visitors from the East side of the Sound. A significant percentage of those travelers are en route to Forks to meet up with a local guide and fish for wild steelhead on a local river. Such travelers bring several key economic benefits to Clallam and Jefferson counties (eating in local restaurants, staying in local accommodations, supporting sporting goods retailers, supporting independent guides, and promoting additional tourism in the area, to name a few). When the wild steelhead are gone and the Twilight craze is over with, there won't be many reasons to for folks to travel that way during the spring months, and the local economies will suffer. Still think it is in your best interests to serve wild steelhead?

Just a quickie related note to this subject in general, last night was our NOP PSA Chapter Annual Dinner & Auction Fund Raiser. I worked the Cash Desk so most everybody had to past by and say hi. I was pleasently surprised just how many of the members stopped and commented about the "Strategy" of Educating Restaurants about Wild Steelhead on the menus. It is working folks, and we must really push the issue with those businesses. They listen and respond appropriately -- Good Work!!!!

I found out a couple more restaurants in P.A. have it on their menus. I'm going to give them each a courtesy call before passing the names along to Bob...

If they choose to ignore my polite attempts to educate them we can let 'em have it with both barrels.

Since the Mrs & I dine out in PA at least once a week, please "Share" the names of those establishments.

Whenever I go to Pikes Place Market, which is only a couple times a year, and see Wild Steelhead for sale, I walk up and ask in a loud voice, " Why are you selling Wild Steelhead, don't you know they are endangered"! The vendors, especially Pike Place Fish, kinda freak out and want to push me aside to talk. I think it has a big impact on all the tourists there hearing the word "Endangered". Well, if it prevents a sale my job is done. Try it sometime, even though my wife hates when I do it, It's kind of fun to see the reaction.