Celebrities don't often come out against cute, furry animals. But yesterday Anthony Bourdain called out his fellow U.S. chefs for joining a boycott against Canadian seafood to protest the country's seal hunt.
"I completely understand well meaning intentions of good hearted chefs who signed this petition. But they are wrong. Visit the Inuit," Bourdain wrote on Twitter.
As Bourdain points out, there is also the correlation of exploding seal populations and low cod stocks. On a Web page explaining the myths and realities of the seal harvest, the Canadian government states that scientific research suggests a rapidly growing gray seal population — which at 350,000 is 10 times greater than it was 40 years ago — may have much to do with high cod mortality in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
It's a rare thing for a celebrity to not support an adorable animal in danger, and Bourdain's tweets were picked up by a few news outlets. His stance is a development that commercial fishermen — who are also sometimes publicly demonized for their harvesting practices — should pay attention to.
Bourdain and other chefs like him aren't content to follow the status quo. I've toured seafood processing plants with these chefs and met others working with local fishermen to promote underutilized fish. They are the ones asking questions, curious about how everything works. And whenever fishermen and chefs collaborate, it's fun to watch. Both are passionately outspoken about their seafood.
When it comes to seals, Bourdain knows what he's talking about. He joined a seal hunt and ate raw seal with an Inuit family in Quebec in a 2005 episode of his TV show "No Reservations." You have to respect him for graciously accepting a seal eyeball from his host's blood-smeared hand and sucking out whatever juice is inside. As he points out it's not that much different from us Americans sucking on chicken bones at KFC.
Which brings me to a point made by chef David McMillan, of Montreal restaurant Joe Beef. If U.S. chefs are looking for food to protest, maybe they should start closer to home.
"I don't understand why chefs who don't understand what they're talking about jump on this bandwagon," he said in an interview with Montreal Eater. "America produces the most industrially processed food on the planet. Why don't they look in their own grocery stores for things to boycott?"
Photo of Chef Danny Bowien from Chefs for Seals Facebook page
