Young chefs sign up for a fishy adventure

Talented young chefs Terror Lekopa and Freedom Khanyile‚ from Gauteng depart on an expedition from Soweto to Sodwana Bay on Sunday.

The WWF- South Africa’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative (Sassi) hopes the pair will be motivated promote sustainable seafood consumption in Gauteng – the second biggest consumer of seafood after the Western Cape – after their adventures.

“The millennial chefs will have unique experiences – snorkelling the coral reefs of Kosi Bay‚ meeting local fishers and rangers‚ undergoing Sassi training at uShaka Marine World and learning from dedicated researchers working to conserve our ocean life‚” said WWF-SA media manager Andrea Weiss.

WWF-Sassi pioneering chefs Jackie Cameron‚ Constantijne Hahndiek and Graham Neilson will meet and dine with Lekopa and Khanyile.

Sassi has been working for 14 years “to transform the seafood market and culinary industry”‚ said Weiss.

Consumer choices drive the market and chefs‚ retailers and suppliers have the potential to shift the demand from unsustainable to sustainable trade‚ WWF-Sassi has found.

Sassi manager Pavitray Pillay said: “Unfortunately unsustainable fishing practices have left fish stocks dangerously depleted and ecosystems sufficiently altered to jeopardise a number of marine species.

“WWF-Sassi has been particularly successful in changing consumer patterns in the Western Cape‚ but there is still much work to be done in Gauteng.”

WWF-Sassi has a database of seafood species with their specific sustainability status identified as green (tuck in)‚ orange (think twice) or red (avoid).

* Consumers can text the name of a species to WWF-Sassi’s “FishMS” (079 499 8795) SMS line to receive an immediate response including the species’ seafood sustainability information.