An ecologically-innovative new restaurant kept afloat by than 1,500 plastic bottles draws attention to the problem of over-fishing

“SS Plastic Dining Room” is a new eco-friendly floating restaurant recently launched at the upscale False Creek Yacht Club marina in Vancouver, Canadá, part of an initiative that hopes to establish eco-friendly floating restaurants serving sustainable seafood in marinas around the world.

The restaurant (floating on a raft in the middle of the marina surrounded by luxury yachts) addresses the worldwide problem of commercial over-fishing and is raising money for the School of Fish Foundation, a charity campaigning to get sustainable seafood programs into culinary schools worldwide.

Canadian chef Robert Clark has designed a gourmet six-course seafood feast for SS Plastic Dining Room that sends a message about sustainable fishing. The menu features crispy Humboldt squid with citrus-marinated tuna, red onion and dill yogurt; seared scallops with octopus bacon wrap; and halibut-crusted salmon with caramelized onion tart – all locally and sustainably sourced.
Incidentally, not all industrially farmed fish is unsustainable, for example the organically farmed tilapia (served at the restaurant) is a vegetarian species that lives on sea grass, and thus it’s not such a big drain on the environment.

What’s more, the restaurant is kept afloat by 1,675 repurposed 2-liter plastic bottles to remind diners of the irreversible damage to marine life caused by dumping plastic in the water. Similarly, the wooden framework of the venue was made from recycled damaged cedar and the fun see-through floor was crafted from recycled Plexiglas.

The team behind SS Plastic Dining Room hopes to have a floating diner in Auckland’s marina by January 2011 and Cape Town’s marina the following year, followed by London. They are also planning to translate the sustainable seafood course into other languages in the hope of changing the face of gastronomic seafood around the world.

Images by: Scoutmagazine.ca
Theglobeandmail.com

Source: Edition.cnn.com
Schooloffishfoundation.org/