Entries at the Milan Sushi Awards earlier in the year (image by Thomas Lu, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)
Working at Greenpeace often means that I find myself in some unusual places - inside a nuclear power station, atop an aeroplane or in a palm oil factory. But I certainly never expected to find myself at an international sushi awards ceremony.
Last year at the annual London Sushi Awards, 7 sushi samurai battled it out to earn the prestigious accolade of creating the 'sushi of the year'. One of these top sushi chefs was later exposed as having used endangered bluefin tuna in their sushi creation. Whilst they didn't actually win the competition (a vegetarian sushi piece was awarded top marks), it didn't reflect well on event organisers Eat Japan.
This year we wrote to Eat Japan in advance of the Awards and were pleasantly surprised when they confirmed that no bluefin tuna would be used this time around. So, when I and two other Greenpeace staffers found ourselves attending the Awards, we came armed not with banners as we expected, but only with our best clothes and some business cards.
Despite the image that you might have of long-bearded hippies in hairshirts discussing the latest innovations in tofu, Greenpeace isn't a vegetarian organisation. Yes cutting down on meat consumption is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint and eating less fish will help conserve dwindling fish stocks but for those of us that don't want to give up fish altogether there are more sustainable alternatives.
One of the sushi chefs - Silla Pernille Bjerrum (head chef and director of the popular sushi restaurant Feng Sushi) - created a sushi dish that I didn't feel guilty about eating. She used line caught mackerel from Cornwall, showing that being green doesn't need to mean compromising on taste. She didn't win but the 'sushi of the year' award went to a creation that didn't even use fish - yes the veggies won again.
Not only has Silla never used bluefin tuna in her own restaurant but she's doing all she can to ensure that she only uses sustainable seafood in all the sushi on her menu. Feng Sushi also looks set to be the latest sign up to our Seafood See Life campaign.
All in all it was a good night's work but it doesn't end here. We'll be campaigning to make sure that the London Sushi Awards keep bluefin tuna off the menu at least until stocks recover and effective management has been introduced. We are also working internationally to get permanent protection for the endangered bluefin - by turning their spawning grounds into marine reserves which will be off-limits to fishing. It's certainly in the interest of sushi-lovers everywhere, and after last night's event I suppose I can count myself as a sushi-lover now as well as an environmentalist.
