Sitting on a log relishing a tray of crisp, greasy fish and chips is an exquisite Vancouver pleasure. Slathered in salty tartar sauce and tangy ketchup, this traditional fare has been a mainstay of Vancouver park-board menus since the 1920s.

Having survived the fat shun of the 1970s, the trans-fat fears of the 1990s, and now the environmental alarm over global fishing practices, concession stands sold a whopping 63,736 pieces of Pacific cod in 2006. (Numbers for 2007 aren’t representative due to the civic workers strike.)

That’s according to Philip Josephs, the park board’s manager of revenue services, who brags that Vancouver’s public “chippies” best those of his native Britain for crispness and freshness.

“When people go to the parks and beaches, they don’t want to be told what’s good for them and what’s not,” he told the Straight in a phone interview, noting that each of the city’s eight fish and chips–serving stands write their own recipe for the batter and the fries.

“They [people] want to have a nice day out. This is a trend all over North America. When people go out for the day—to a fair, the PNE, or to a beach—they like to eat things that maybe they’re not allowed to eat at home…because it’s a special occasion.”

That said, canola oil long ago replaced beef tallow in the fryers, Josephs explained. And more recently, public concession stands went Ocean Wise, meaning they only sell sustainably caught Pacific cod, and have dropped the previously popular “shrimp and chips” from the menu and are serving up calamari instead.

Some diners may have been turned off by the park board’s foray about 10 years ago into triangularly shaped, preformed frozen fish. Now, all of the public-beach concession stands—English Bay, Jericho Beach, Locarno Beach, Lumberman’s Arch, New Brighton Park, Second Beach, Spanish Banks East, and Spanish Banks West—serve fillets.

Even the privatized concession run by the upstairs Watermark restaurant at fitness-freaky Kitsilano Beach serves up batter-fried Ocean Wise–approved Pacific cod and wild B.C. salmon with chips.

“Thin people have the odd sin as well,” Fred Bilawey, Watermark’s director of operations, told the Straight, laughing. “The two-piece cod and chips is our biggest seller.”

As for the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise standard, he said, it’s both enforced through the concession’s agreement with the park board, and Watermark’s own mandate. “We just want to be a little more concerned and caring about what’s going on in the world around us,” Bilawey said.

Beyond Vancouver’s seashore, though, what’s happening with the Pacific-cod trawl fishery is alarming. The rising Canadian dollar and the skyrocketing cost of fuel mean the U.S. market for B.C. ground fish has collapsed, according to Bob Humphreys, executive director of the Groundfish Development Authority. Until last year, he said, 95 percent of cod, halibut, and other ground fish were sold to California.

“The market is pretty well dried up,” Humphreys told the Straight in an interview from Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. “In B.C., it’s [consumption is] steady, but it’s not a big share of the market. We’re really not that big fish-eaters here, so we couldn’t possibly rely on our local market to meet all our needs. They’re looking at other markets—Europe and Asia—and that’s what the hope is for the future.”

Little wonder: for example, at the Real Canadian Superstore on Grandview Highway on June 4, frozen cod was $11.37 per kilogram. In comparison, frozen chicken breasts were $6.57 per kilogram, and regular ground beef was $2.67 per kilogram—a quarter the price of the low-fat, omega-3–rich, wild, sustainable fish.

So at $7.95 for a one-piece cod meal and $10.95 for a two-piece one, Vancouver’s concession stands are doing double duty. First, they’re a relatively economical way to eat Pacific cod. Second, the 5,500 or so kilograms of Pacific cod sold through the concession stands each year help prop up the remains of a sustainable B.C. resource industry, according to Humphreys.

The marine biologist recalled that when the Groundfish Development Authority was formed in 1997 to manage trawling quotas, there were 142 vessels participating. Now, he said, there are 60. He predicts that in five years, just 40 vessels will be left.

“It’s one of the best-managed fisheries anywhere in the world,” Humphreys said, saying that each vessel is required to keep an independent inspector aboard, and that less than 60 percent of the ground-fish quota is taken each year.

The Atlantic cod’s collapse will not be repeated here. “It’s tough for people to make a living on the deck of a vessel. Very difficult to attract young people to this industry, just because it doesn’t look like much of a future, unless the industry changes around completely,” he said.

So the park board’s Josephs encourages Vancouverites to do their part and order up a tray.

“It goes with the water. It goes with the beach,” he said. “Whether you go to White Rock, or to England. Fish and chips is sitting on the beach on a log and enjoying yourself, and having something you can eat with your fingers.”