Questions about Sea Bass

Tomorrow night we are offering Wild California Sea Bass. After sending out the special, I had a lot of e-mails asking me when we were going to be serving Chilean Sea Bass.

4 Olives has selected to only serve fish that is harvested in a responsible method from sustainable fisheries. Chilean Sea Bass does not fall under that category.

80% or better of the Chilean Sea Bass sold in the world is illegally poached by pirate boats. We have selected (along with thousands of other restaurants) not to add to the demand for the fish.

Chilean Sea Bass, also called Toothfish, comes only from the waters surrounding Antarctica and is not in fact a member of the bass family (nor is it really from Chile, but Chilean fisherman were the first to commercially sell the fish, thus the name).

Here is my pitch for the Wild California Sea Bass: It’s fantastic, it’s line-caught by day boats, and it’s a thriving population. Most importantly it is ultra-fresh. Chilean Sea Bass is fished by massive commercial boats that stay at sea for months, the fish is processed at sea and frozen. Even when someone says that Chilean Sea Bass is fresh, it is in fact ice-packed and held on ship for weeks, after all there’s no FedEx pickup point at the South Pole!

No matter how good it started, I will take a fresh fish over a frozen fish any day of the week!

So join us for a wonderful special tomorrow night, and feel good about doing so.


Enjoy!

Scott