Most of us want to buy products that are produced on a sustainable basis. What’s good for the environment is good for all of us. But when it comes to seafood, defining sustainable is getting a bit confusing.

What’s good for the environment is good for
all of us.

Currently, there is only one independent group that certifies sustainable seafood. That’s the London-based Marine Stewardship Council, which relies on substantial funding from the Packard Foundation, a major source of funding that a variety of environmental groups use to advocate sustainable seafood. After a slow start (it was founded 10 years ago), the MSC has recently certified a number of important U.S. fisheries, including Alaska salmon, Alaska cod and pollock, Pacific halibut, Oregon shrimp and Pacific sablefish.

Big buyers are one big reason behind the push for sustainable fish. A number of the biggest supermarket chains in Europe and North America have said they are committed to buying sustainable seafood. Wal-Mart, for example, has said that within seven years it wants all of its wild fish to be MSC-certified. The push for sustainable seafood is having a noticeable impact on the seafood industry, which is rushing to get more fisheries stamped sustainable.

A number of the biggest supermarket chains in Europe and North America have said they are committed to buying sustainable seafood.

But some people in the fish business don’t want to rely only on environmental groups to define sustainability, which can be a fairly nebulous and subjective term. As a result, a number of countries and regions, including Alaska, Norway, Japan and Iceland, are coming up with their own eco-labels to convince people that their seafood is produced in an environmentally friendly way. With a new batch of eco-labels coming, there’s bound to be increasing confusion among consumers.

What’s really getting to be confusing, though, is the battle over getting farmed seafood certified as sustainable. Currently, there is no independent group like MSC, which certifies only wild fish, to certify sustainable farmed seafood. Farmed shrimp and farmed salmon, the two pillars of most seafood programs, get very low marks from environmental groups, some of whom use Packard money to fund negative publicity campaigns to discourage consumers from buying these items. However, no retailer or restaurant chain is willing to gut its seafood sales by giving up on these two products, which can account for well over half of their total seafood sales. Even Whole Foods, the largest natural foods retailer, sells farmed salmon and shrimp. That’s why producers and buyers have been working together to establish certification programs that give consumers confidence they are buying seafood that is farmed sustainably.

In the U.S., the Global Aquaculture Alliance, an industry group of producers and buyers, has established standards it calls Best Aquaculture Practices in order to "better meet the demands of the growing global market for wholesome seafood produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner."

In order to be certified, producers must agree to have their operations audited. Large shrimp buyers such as Wal-Mart and Red Lobster are requiring their suppliers to adhere to these standards. One large retailer, Wegmans in the northeastern U.S., has worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to come up with standards that requires its farmed salmon and shrimp producers to produce "eco-friendly" farmed seafood.

The good news is that the international seafood community is making tremendous strides in producing its products on a more environmentally responsible, sustainable basis.

Nevertheless, some environmental groups maintain that the sustainable standards for farmed seafood such as those developed by EDF and standards currently being developed by the World Wildlife Fund are inadequate. That means consumers will continue to be subjected to conflicting, confusing messages about what is – and what is not – sustainable seafood.

While that is regrettable, the good news is that the international seafood community is making tremendous strides in producing its products on a more environmentally responsible, sustainable basis. At Simply Seafood® we commend the seafood industry’s efforts to work with environmental groups and develop reasonable, practical ways to produce sustainable seafood. And we remain committed to selling only high-quality, all natural seafood that is produced sustainably.

All the Best,

Peter Redmayne
President
Simply Seafood^®