Sushi chef a world leader in ocean sustainability

This month, a London-based marine conservation group chose 12 people and organizations it feels are doing the most to save the world’s ocean species from extinction. Among those honored — including Greenpeace, fisheries experts and a former White House adviser — is Carlsbad sushi chef Rob Ruiz.

The Blue Marine Foundation and Boat International awarded the 38-year-old restaurateur an Ocean Award for his three-year campaign to save Mexico’s endangered vaquita porpoise and to promote the use of shrimp caught without the use of entangling gill nets.

While the soft-spoken Oceanside native might seem an unlikely choice for global recognition, it came as no surprise to local scientists, fishermen and chefs. For the past 10 years, Ruiz has been one of the region’s most outspoken advocates for serving traceable and sustainable seafood.

“Rob has taken ownership of the problem,” said Barbara Taylor, chief scientist for vaquita surveys for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla. “He’s willing to do this and he’s well known enough that he can get other local restaurants and chefs to participate. He wants to make this work.”

Ruiz — who flew to London for the Jan. 13 ceremony — said he’s humbled by the award, which is the culmination of a journey that began in his early 20s. Back then, he was training in Hawaii under Japanese sushi masters who taught him to respect the ingredients he serves by knowing when, where and by whom each fish was caught. When he moved back to North County in 2005, he said he got angry when he discovered some unscrupulous local restaurants were selling endangered and intentionally mislabeled seafood. That anger fueled a passion to change San Diego’s seafood landscape.

“This is my life,” he said. “I’ve got no wife, no kids, just this. It’s my job as a steward to be serious about food and I have a vendetta. I’m (angry) and I won’t stand for it. I want to disrupt things and make things better.”

At Harney Sushi in 2011, he and fellow chef Anthony Sinsay made the company’s menu entirely sustainable. Then to combat fraudulent mislabeling in 2013, he invented edible QR codes, tiny edible rice paper tags that diners could scan with their cellphones to identify the source of the raw fish on their plates.

But those efforts, written up in national magazines, were only a warmup. While preparing in 2014 to open his 140-seat Carlsbad restaurant, The Land & Water Co., he began meeting with ocean researchers to determine which seafood species were in the healthiest supply and, therefore, safest to serve.

That’s when he discovered the plight of the vaquita, a baby-faced porpoise species native to the Northern Gulf of California that has been decimated by Mexican gill net shrimp-fishing. Taylor said that fewer than 100 surviving vaquita were found in the most recent species survey, making it the world’s most endangered marine mammal.

“The vaquita is to Mexico what the panda is to China. It’s like the national ambassador of Mexico,” Ruiz said, adding that even if it’s too late to save the porpoise, the effort won’t be wasted. “We need to care about losing species because they’re a barometer for the overall health of the ocean. We’re upsetting the equilibrium of the ocean and setting a time bomb for when fish will be gone.”

Practically from the week he opened Land & Water Co., Ruiz began hosting benefit dinners that have raised tens of thousands of dollars for vaquita preservation and education. Last April, the Mexican government imposed a two-year ban on the use of gill nets in the Northern Gulf. The goal is to allow the vaquita time to recover and to introduce safer, more fish-friendly netting gear before the ban expires in 2017, Taylor said.

Because gill nets are cheap and highly efficient, the Mexican fishermen need to be convinced that changing their ways makes good economic sense. To that end, Ruiz has been working with Sarah Mesnick, an ecologist and external affairs director at Southwest Fisheries Science Center, to create a supply chain for a higher-end Gulf white shrimp product caught without gill nets.

“Local culinary innovators, like Chef Rob, are leading by action,” Mesnick said. “They are rewarding and encouraging sustainable fishing practices by sourcing seafood products caught with non-entangling fishing gears.”

Ruiz said he’s hoping to create a regional market for an artisinal shrimp product that may cost a little more but will help both the fish and the fishermen in the Gulf.

“What we want to develop is a fresh, heads-on, whole product that arrives at the border ready to cook, rather than the old gigantic ice cubes of frozen shrimp,” Ruiz said.

Among the Southern California customers Ruiz has already lined up to buy these fresh shrimp products is Tommy Gomes, fishmonger for Catalina Offshore Products, which has sold premium seafood to San Diego restaurants since 1977. Gomes said he and other regional fishmongers see Ruiz’s Ocean Award as “the James Beard Award for seafood.”

“With Rob, it’s never about him. It’s about the fish, the craft, the tradition and the honor and heritage of seafood itself,” Gomes said. “Every fish tells a story and Rob tells that story with every fish he serves.”

Ruiz practices what he preaches at Land & Water Co., a French izakaya (a Japanese-style pub) in the 1887 Queen Anne mansion at the corner of Carlsbad Boulevard and Carlsbad Village Drive. All of the fish he serves is sustainable and traceable, all his beef, pork and poultry is humanely raised and slaughtered and much of his produce comes from a small family farm in Fallbrook.

His typical 16-hour day begin around 4 a.m. when fish buyers begin texting with news of the arriving catch at ports in San Diego and L.A. He butchers everything by hand and wastes nothing. Even water used in the kitchen is stored to irrigate the onsite herb garden. He hasn’t taken a day off in nearly two years because he fears if he slows down he’ll lose momentum.

Longtime friend and fellow sustainable sushi chef Davin Waite, who owns Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub and The Whet Noodle ramen bar in Oceanside, said Ruiz is one of the most driven people he knows.

“He brings an intensity and passion to everything he does, even if it’s the simplest little plate and you can definitely taste it,” Waite said. “That passion fuels him. It’s been decades since I’ve seen Rob get the sleep a normal human being would need.”

Ruiz was honored in the chef/restaurant category at the inaugural Ocean Awards, which Blue Marine Chairman Charles Clover said, in a statement: “celebrate those individuals, groups and companies who are leading the charge in fixing one of the world’s largest problems.”

Other honorees included politicians, scientists and celebrities who are working to remove plastics from the ocean, create marine preserves and study fish populations. Blue Marine was founded in 2010 by the producers of the documentary “The End of the Line,” which charts the impending collapse of the world’s fisheries. The group’s mission is to protect 10 percent of the world’s oceans by 2020.

The awards were co-sponsored by Boat International, which publishes superyacht and luxury magazines in 57 countries. Ruiz said he’s excited that the story of the work being done here will be published in 1.3 million magazines worldwide this spring.

“I hope it will shine a light on San Diego and the culinary minds that are now embracing change,” he said. “The world’s leading sustainability efforts are happening right here.”