Saving Seafood

Four new Seafood Champions crowned in Bangkok, Thailand at SWSS19

June 11, 2019 — The historic number of Seafood Champions grew by four on 11 June, when Diversified Communications and SeaWeb awarded Wakao Hanaoka, OceanMind, Darian McBain, and Francisco Blaha with the prestigious distinction in Bangkok, Thailand during the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit this week.

The winners were chosen from a group of 17 finalists and are each regarded as seafood sustainability leaders committed to creatively and faithfully supporting the movement as it evolves, Diversified said in a press release. They were recognized during a special reception on the evening of Tuesday, 11 June at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, where the summit is being held from 10 to 15 June.

“Once again the Seafood Champion Awards bring together a collection of inspirational stories that exemplify the great work being done to make seafood more sustainable and more ethical,” Diversified Communications Group Vice President Liz Plizga said. “We want to recognize and thank all our Seafood Champion Awards Finalists for the important work they are doing. The 17 finalists show how companies, governments, non-profits, and individuals are all having a positive impact on seafood across the globe.”

Change and progress are hallmarks of the 2019 Seafood Champion Awards recipients – the winners have been involved with changing how a country perceives sustainable seafood; transforming industry and supply chains; shifting how governments regulate fisheries and enforce the law; and redefining how individuals and communities support and benefit from sustainable fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Meet the 5 Seafood Champions of 2017

June 6, 2017 — Ned Bell, the Ocean Wise executive chef at Vancouver Aquarium, founded Chefs for Oceans in 2014 to raise awareness about sustainable seafood.

The organization is “creating a movement that is impacting the way people think about the seafood they eat,” according to Bell’s nomination as a Seafood Champion finalist in March 2017.

On Monday, 5 June, Bell was named one of the winners of the Seafood Champion Awards for Advocacy (the award will be shared with the International Pole & Line Foundation).

“I am so honored to be considered a seafood champion,” Bell told SeafoodSource. “I’m a proud of being a chef, and my community is the one I want to engage.”

Prior to working at the Vancouver Aquarium, Bell was the head chef at Lumiere and at YEW Kitchen in the Four Seasons, both highly regarded restaurants in Vancouver. In both restaurants, Bell championed local and sustainable seafood.

“Ned’s vibrant personality, infectious enthusiasm and commitment to improving the health of Canada’s lakes, oceans, and rivers have made a significant impact on those around him,” Four Seasons Vancouver General Manager Martin Sinclair said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood Champion Awards – global winners announced!

June 6, 2017 — The following was released by SeaWeb Seafood Summit:

A fearless fisheries minister who’s led a high-profile campaign against harmful fishing practices, a collective effort to combat large-scale illegal fishing in East Africa, two chefs who step far outside their kitchens to promote sustainable seafood, and a foundation breaking new ground in preemptive protection of Indian Ocean tuna are SeaWeb’s 2017 Seafood Champions.

The annual Seafood Champion Awards, presented at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit, recognize individuals and organizations for excellence in promoting ocean health and responsible practices with honors in four categories: leadership, innovation, vision and advocacy.

“The 2017 Seafood Champions demonstrate that courage and creativity can drive progress on seafood sustainability worldwide,” said Mark Spalding, president of SeaWeb and The Ocean Foundation. “These Champions have made smart use of strategies and tools tailored to their unique situations. Some employed teamwork and diplomacy to patiently overcome resistance. Others took bold actions. All have shown the determination and leadership that are the core qualities of Seafood Champions.”

The Seafood Champion Award for Leadership went to Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries since 2014. She has banned the use of bottom trawlers and other unsustainable catching devices; led the fight against illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in her geographically dispersed island nation; and fought against the use of forced labor on fishing vessels.

FISH-i Africa, a partnership of eight East African countries, received the Seafood Champion Award for Innovation for sharing information and taking collective enforcement action to combat large-scale illegal fishing. FISH-i’s string of investigations and prosecutions has created a strong deterrence to illegal activity and promoted legitimate operators.

Matthew Beaudin, executive chef of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, earned the Seafood Champion Award for Vision for leading the shift to local and sustainable seafood within the Monterey Bay restaurant scene. In 2016, Chef Matt visited more than 20 cities to promote Seafood Watch and responsible sourcing. He is a regional and cross-border leader, having also developed aquaponics programs to support HIV-positive orphans in Mexico.

Sharing the Seafood Champion Award for Advocacy were the International Pole & Line Foundation and Ned Bell, Ocean Wise executive chef at the Vancouver Aquarium and founder of Chefs for Oceans. IPNLF earned its place at the top for spearheading Indian Ocean tuna fisheries reform, most notably the adoption of a precautionary harvest strategy by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission—a huge leap forward for global tuna management. Chef Ned has made sustainable seafood his mission. In 2014, he rode his bike 8,700 km across Canada, hosting 20 events alongside some of the country’s best chefs to raise awareness of sustainable seafood.

“This year’s Seafood Champions show an important trend: providing practical and affordable solutions for small-scale fishers and developing nations is now a priority,” said judge Katie Miller, sustainable seafood project lead for UK-based ClientEarth. “I’m looking forward to seeing how these play out on the water.”

The judges chose winners from a group of 16 finalists doing remarkable work in their home waters or in multinational coalitions. They winnowed the finalists from an outstanding group of 115 nominees working in 43 countries, reflecting a sector that is increasingly global, collaborative and distributed throughout the supply chain.

The Seafood Champions were honored June 5 at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit kickoff reception, sponsored by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Seafood sustainability leaders from around the world attended the event, which was held at Chihuly Garden and Glass.

For more information on the awards, go to www.seafoodchampions.org.

About SeaWeb

SeaWeb accelerates the adoption of sustainable practices and products in the global seafood industry through communication, convening and facilitation. SeaWeb is a project of The Ocean Foundation, and produces the Seafood Summit in partnership with Diversified Communications.

Read the full release here

Pelagic Data Systems honored as SeaWeb Seafood Champion Finalist; FISH-i Africa Wins Innovation Award

June 6, 2017 — The following was released by Pelagic Data Systems:

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) was honored as a finalist at the Seafood Champion Awards, held yesterday at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle. FISH-i Africa, a partnership of eight East African nations, was presented with the Seafood Champion Award for Innovation for their low-cost information-sharing solution to combat illegal fishing in the Western Indian Ocean.

“It is an honor to be recognized as a finalist among such innovative and forward-thinking organizations and individuals,” said PDS Chief Scientific Officer Melissa Garren. “Pelagic Data Systems thanks Mark Spalding and the entire SeaWeb team for bringing together such a passionate group of people united by a common goal of seafood sustainability. We’d also like to offer our congratulations to FISH-i Africa on their victory and their exemplary, collaborative work fighting illegal fishing.”

FISH-i Africa was established in 2012 when eight East African nations – Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania – united with the goal of halting large-scale illegal fishing. By bringing together national enforcement authorities, as well as technical and legal experts, FISH-i Africa is proving that regional cooperation and information-sharing can be powerful tools to stop illegal catch from getting to market.

This is the 11th year that SeaWeb has presented Seafood Champion Awards at its annual Seafood Summit. The Seafood Champion Awards program features four categories – Innovation, Vision, Leadership, and Advocacy – with four finalists in each category. The awards were created to honor organizations and individuals that promote environmentally sustainable seafood.

The Seafood Champion Award for Innovation recognizes those who identify and apply new solutions to ecological challenges, market needs, or sustainability barriers. In addition to PDS and FISH-i Africa, finalists included Karl Warr of Better Fishing, who has improved the sustainability of bottom trawling with a new cage mechanism, and Alan Lovewell of Real Good Fish, a California-based community-supported fishery (CSF).

PDS recently formed a partnership with Mr. Lovewell to outfit fishing boats working in his CSF with PDS’s vessel tracking technology. PDS’s technology provides Real Good Fish subscribers with a detailed look at where, when, and how their fish was caught.

About Pelagic Data Systems

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) is the creator of ultra-lightweight vessel tracking systems for boats of all sizes. PDS’s innovative vessel tracking system is completely solar-powered and affordable, and helps fishers and regulators alike collect the fishing data that they value most. PDS is active in Southeast Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas where its technology is being used to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and help fishers maintain their livelihoods.

SeaWeb announces finalists for 2017 Seafood Champion Awards

March 20, 2017 — The 16 finalists have been announced for the 2017 Seafood Champion Awards, the seafood community’s premier honor recognizing outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood.

The Seafood Champion Awards are presented by SeaWeb, a program of The Ocean Foundation. SeaWeb serves the sustainable seafood community by supporting a coordinated infrastructure of people and knowledge to guide, inspire and reward the seafood industry’s uptake of sustainable practices. The awards have been given annually since 2006 to world leaders who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to advancing seafood sustainability.

This year, the Seafood Champion Awards will be awarded at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit, taking place 5 to 7 June, 2017, in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. [Editor’s note: SeaWeb and Diversified Communications, owner of SeafoodSource.com, jointly produce the SeaWeb Seafood Summit.]

In the leadership category, the finalists include Wally Stevens, the executive director of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, where he has developed the Best Aquaculture Practices certification and worked through a variety of channels to promote responsible aquaculture; Mariah Boyle, who is being recognized for her work in urging seafood companies to set commitments to improving traceability, social responsibility and combatting IUU fishing; Susi Pudjiastuti, an Indonesian businesswoman who has turned her attention to fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as her country’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries; and Sea Pact, a nonprofit consisting of nine North American seafood companies that award grants to fisheries improvement projects around the globe.

Read the full story at Seafood Source