For anyone who lives in the greater Los Angeles area and loves food and/or the ocean, the Sustainable Seafood Expo on Oct. 2 from noon to 5pm is a great event for you!

The event features scrumptious seafood samples, cooking demos, a full cash bar and great educational activities for people of all ages. Plus, Adrian Grenier of “Entourage” fame will be the Keynote Speaker! He is a major ocean advocate and founder of the Lonely Whale Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing people closer to the world’s oceans through education and awareness, inspiring empathy and action for ocean health and the well-being of marine wildlife – pretty darn cool.

There will be six cooking demonstrations, including one by Executive Chef Bernard Ibarra of Terranea Resort. He will be making a delectable dish (see photo below) that features sustainable red abalone raised by Ocean Rose Abalone. This is pretty exciting because for many years, abalone has been off menus due to overfishing and depleted wild stocks. Now it is starting to appear in restaurants again as innovative abalone farms increase availability without impacting wild populations. This is a great chance to try it!

The purpose of the Sustainable Seafood Expo is summed up perfectly by the event tagline: Learn how the fish on your dish should be caught or farmed and how YOU can lessen the impact on the marine environment by making savvy seafood choices.

By attending the event, you will have great opportunities to sample new seafood options while learning how to make the best selections when dining out or purchasing seafood. Experts will be on hand to explain fisheries, habitats, management, and a host of other factors that affect each species.

I have to admit I’m extremely biased in favor of this event. First, the event is produced by Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and its non-profit fundraising organization FRIENDS, both of which I work for (however I was not paid to write this article, although I did borrow some of the language I already wrote for the event) and both of which do amazing work educating people about ocean health. Second, this topic is super important to me. If we are going to sustain wild, diverse and healthy ocean ecosystems into the future, we have to become smart consumers!

So I hope to see you at the Sustainable Seafood Expo on Oct. 2 from noon to 5pm at Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, CA. I’ll be helping with check-in at registration, make sure you stop by and say hi!

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