Rare Fish Served At Wedding of Gore's Daughter

LOS ANGELES — Vice President Gore, the world's highest-profile green campaigner, was at the center of an embarrassing row yesterday after serving a rare fish at his daughter's Beverly Hills wedding. Just one week after Live Earth, his global musical spectacular to raise awareness of environmental issues, the former vice president attended a rehearsal dinner for his daughter's marriage that featured Chilean sea bass.

Sarah Gore, 28, a medical student, was married to the Los Angeles businessman Bill Lee at the Beverly Hills Hotel on July 14. The night before the wedding, People magazine reported, the Gores were at a dinner for 75 at the nearby Crustacean restaurant where a six-course tasting menu included Chilean sea bass — also known as Patagonian toothfish. The reaction was swift: Writing in the Australian Daily Telegraph, Rebecca Keeble of Humane Society International, a conservation pressure group, complained of the danger to the species from "from illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing activities."

She noted that "more than 50% of toothfish traded is illegally caught, and includes juveniles vital to the ongoing toothfish population," and called on the American government to help crack down on illegal fishing by sanctioning Spain for allowing its nationals to fish illegally for the species in conservation areas.

And in the meantime, she acidly suggested, "Al Gore could choose something else to eat." Web loggers around the world rapidly picked up her attack on the former vice president, and his implied hypocrisy.

But the fish enjoyed by the Gores were not endangered or illegally caught.

Rather, the restaurant later confirmed, they had come from one of the world's few well-managed, sustainable populations of toothfish, and they were caught and documented in compliance with Marine Stewardship Council regulations. The Gores' spokesman, Kaylee Kreider, acknowledged the fish has been on the menu, but he said, "The Gores absolutely agree with this humane society and the rest of the environmental community about illegally caught Chilean sea bass.

"The problem is huge. This is unfortunate. We have been in touch with the society today. The really important thing is that people become more aware of this issue."