Profiles

Robin Downey

Robin Downey is the Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (PCSGA). Founded in 1930, the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (PCSGA) represents growers in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii. Their members grow a wide variety of healthy, sustainable shellfish including oysters, clams, mussels, scallops and geoduck.

What is your favorite seafood?
There is no finer food in the world, in my opinion, than an oyster in the half shell, barbecued just to the point when the shell opens. Dip it in a bit of lemon butter or just eat as-is, and you have the Food of the Gods.

What is the most popular shellfish grown by your members?
The “most popular” shellfish is in the eye of the beholder. In the world of oyster bars, however, it could be argued that Kumamotos are most desired. Growers are not able to produce enough for the demand. If you are talking sushi, then geoduck clams would be the winner. But some of our best customers have no particular fondness for either oysters or geoduck – they’d rather have a bowl of tender, sweet steamed mussels or clams.

How did you get interested in the issue of sustainable seafood?
One of the aspects of my job that attracted me in the first place was the role shellfish farmers need to play as stewards of the bays and inlets where they grow their crops. The health of the marine environment and the quality of our growing waters is tantamount to growing shellfish. In fact, water quality standards for shellfish growing areas are even stricter than for swimming waters. A lot of our time is spent in protecting and restoring the health of our estuaries. Operating in harmony with Mother Nature is part of what we do, so becoming involved in the sustainable seafood movement was a natural fit. And we have family farms that are in their fifth and six generation of shellfish farming; you can’t get any more sustainable than that.

How would you describe your philosophy on ocean conservation?
I grew up on the waters of Puget Sound and the San Juan and Gulf Islands. My father was a sailor and my grandfather a sports fisherman, so the love of the sea was intrinsic to my upbringing. I was taught to treasure the gifts of the sea and to respect its creatures. I remember beach-combing as a child and being instructed to put the large rocks I would turn over to inspect shore-crabs back the way I found them so I wouldn't permanently disrupt their "home." We dug for clams and picked wild oysters off the beach and caught our own fish and crabs. We didn't think much about water pollution in those days - it was a problem you'd hear about on the news, in other parts of the world. Looking backward, then looking forward, it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the negative effects our burgeoning population has had on our marine resources. But we do have tools at our disposal to stop the loss of habitat - if we just have the political will to make it so. Zoning and growth management laws are critical to our ability to protect what we still have, and education is key. Those of us blessed to work in and around the water have an important role to play in educating the public about our natural resources and to set an example of good stewardship. This includes setting policy at the local, state and national level that recognizes the intrinsic value of our natural resources and sets that as a priority over collecting a higher rate of tax revenue from expensive homes and developments along the shoreline.

How has your philosophy affected the work of PCSGA?
I applied for this job 10 years ago because I believed the organization – and the leaders in the shellfish farming community - already had, at their core, the same philosophy of stewardship and appreciation for the natural world that I grew up with. I have never known or worked with finer people than the shellfish farmers that make up PCSGA. They don't just philosophize about environmentalism; they are practicing it every day of their lives. They are the real-deal. This common philosophy forms the basis – the foundation – of all of our work

Do buyers of Pacific shellfish and members of PCSGA notice the focus on sustainability?
As we have worked to educate buyers about our environmental codes and our efforts to promote sustainable practices I would say there is definitely a heightened awareness on everyone's part. While most growers were already practicing sustainable methods, their commitment to developing our Environmental Codes document, which we did at the grass-roots level 5 years ago, has memorialized and no doubt strengthened that commitment in a more tangible way.

What trends have you noticed in seafood in the past 10 years?
In terms of oysters, we've moved increasingly away from a "commodity" meat market, where most oysters were shucked and sold in jars to be fried. Oyster bars have sprouted up all over the country and fueled a huge demand for high quality half-shell oysters. There is also much more emphasis on a "sense of place" now than there was 10 years ago. But even 10 years ago, Penn Cove mussels were already a house-hold name for most of us foodies, so we were already moving in that direction. The "Slow Food" movement has really started to take hold as well, with a growing interest in foods that have not been mass-produced or processed. Shellfish certainly fit that bill - although in reality they are one of the fastest foods to prepare. From the moment you put a couple pounds of clams in a pot, with or without a bit of seasoning, perhaps a bit of onion or garlic, you can have an incredibly tasty and healthy dinner on the table in 10 minutes. And of course, our most recent farmed shellfish crop is the geoduck clam. Although it is a native to the Northwest, it was harvested as part of a wild dive-fishery. It was not cultivated until about 15 years ago, so it's a relative new-comer to aquaculture products, used primarily in sushi and sashimi. If you go to a sushi bar, ask for “Murugai” or “giant clam.” It's worth noting here that it was actually geoduck divers that started farming geoduck as they saw the natural resource increasingly depleted. When we can rely on farmed shellfish to supply the market, then we'veprotected our wild stocks. Ultimately, in terms of trends, our success in farming shellfish will assure the ongoing health and diversity of our wild natural resources.

Why do you support Seafood Choices Alliance?
I appreciate the Alliance's work to educate chefs and the public about sustainable seafood - and what constitutes sustainable seafood. It's a wonderful forum for bringing producers, chefs and consumers together to learn from one another.

Posted November 14, 2007

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