13 Oct Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Off the Hook Seafood Festival

Summer may be over but that is no reason not to head to the beach. After all, the sun is still shining and it is still warm out here in Southern California. So last weekend, the first weekend of October, I headed to the Santa Monica Pier for the 4th Annual Off the Hook Seafood Festival. Kicking off National Seafood Month, Off the Hook Seafood Festival is helping raise awareness for the sustainable seafood movement as well as raising funds for Heal the Bay who is working hard to protect our Santa Monica Bay. An important cause centered around good food makes Off The Hook Seafood Festival the Please The Palate pick of the week. The seafood festival, with the mission to offer a “fun, foodie fundraising event that celebrates our beloved sea creatures, chefs, fishermen and ecosystems, and preserve our world’s oceans”, took place on the Santa Monica Pier with the Ferris wheel and roller coaster in the background.  Seafood is one of the healthiest sources of protein on the planet! It is an excellent source of low-fat protein that is packed with nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids that provide health benefits for people of all ages. And at Off The Hook Seafood Festival, more than 20 restaurants from across Los Angeles came together to serve dishes featuring their favorite underwater ingredients. The money raised at Off The Hook went to Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds of Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy and clean. As we stood on the pier, looking out at the ocean, eating tasty seafood dishes, it was more important to remember the importance of supporting the Sustainable Seafood movement. Overfishing needs to be stopped as it causes damage to the ecosystems resulting in a negative domino effect in the ocean systems. With sustainable fishing, we humans will be able to continually fish in oceans and other bodies of water.