Renowned Florida Chef on the Future of Sustainable Seafood and Fish Farming

Meet Steve Phelps, an award-winning chef, restaurant owner, sustainable seafood advocate and recreational fisherman, who describes his mission as simple: good sourcing and respect for the planet.

The goal of Chef Phelps’ restaurant Indigenous, located in Sarasota, Florida, is to create a better food system. The Indigenous menu is crafted using local and sustainable foods, including farm-raised fish.

The Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast has been designated as one of two Aquaculture Opportunity Areas by NOAA Fisheries.

Chef Phelps was recently interviewed by CBS This Morning about seafood, sustainability, the health of our oceans and how fish farming is the way of the future for meeting demand for seafood responsibly. And Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS) recently had an opportunity to interview Chef Phelps about the importance of sustainable seafood and the benefits of farmed fish.

Another recent CBS This Morning piece focused on the new sustainable advances that have reimagined fish farming. The interview took place with Dr. Dr. Kevan Main, a scientist that leads the Mote Aquaculture Research Park in Sarasota, Florida, who provided a tour of their aquaculture facility. Chef Phelps expressed his support for the work being done by scientists who are making aquaculture more sustainable and providing a consistent supply of healthy and locally sourced seafood for communities.

As a chef, why is sourcing sustainable seafood so important to you?
I have sourced only sustainable seafood since I moved to Florida years ago. After studying the effects of overfishing, labor conditions, contaminations and pollutants, it was logical to focus on properly sourced options.

How do you educate your restaurant guests about the importance of sustainable seafood, including the benefits of farmed fish?
At Indigenous we practice the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guidance, which helps consumers and businesses make choices for a healthy ocean, and I'm on the Blue Ribbon Task Force of chefs for them. We utilize the pocket guides and they are in every guest check presenters after the dinner. We also hold many sustainable seafood events i.e.: Lionfish Derby tastings, Trashfish Dinners, Sustainable Seafood Captain dinners and more. Many dinners highlight companies such as Australis, which is known for their sustainable seafood and focus on climate-smart ocean farming. Plus, our menu always has a farmed fish on it.

Have you had to counter misconceptions about the quality of farmed fish to your restaurant guests?
We have definitely seen a decrease in fish farm “naysayers” over the years. We use companies like Open Blue Cobia, Sunburst Trout, Ora King and many others. They all offer great tools to show staff and guests their methods of farming, and this has helped tremendously. I believe we are making great progress on land and offshore.

Federal lawmakers are considering action on expanding offshore aquaculture here in the U.S. What benefits do you see resulting from the expansion of domestic aquaculture?
I believe we have the data to move forward with many U.S. fish farm programs now. I'm hoping science can continue to prove low environmental impact and we can certainly guarantee containment and no infection. With these advances, we may see skeptical coastal communities begin to accept farms in their region. The planet will need another solid source of protein from aquaculture seeing as our soil is losing all its nutrients. This will also create more jobs as we know.