Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability

Sea Port forecasts good news that seafood sustainability will continue to advance on many fronts in 2015

  

Protecting Bristol Bay:  

Over the past few years, Sea Port has submitted letters to the EPA and worked in cooperation with the New England Aquarium to call for prohibiting the habitat destroying activities of massive mining ventures in the Bristol Bay watershed of Alaska to protect its economically and culturally important salmonid resources for which it is world famous.   At the end of 2014, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum protecting the coastal waters of the Bay from oil and gas development.  This act unfortunately does not guarantee the safeguarding of the life-giving Bristol Bay watershed that provides the essential breeding and nursery grounds for the native salmon.  However, Sea Port believes that this presidential memorandum will add critical momentum going into 2015 for finally establishing lasting protection for this wondrous watershed which we believe is worthy of World Heritage designation. 

IUU Fishing (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated):

Sea Port foresees more international cooperative efforts coming in 2015 to tackle the critical sustainability issue of IUU fishing.  As Sea Port did in 2014, we will be offering our seafood industry input to NOAA to assist in solving this crucial  global problem that impedes many high seas and foreign fisheries from becoming more sustainable.

Increasing seafood consumption in order to advance sustainability:

Sea Port foresees that in 2015 the American consumer will gain a better understanding of the unique essential health benefits of eating a diverse variety of seafood and how doing so actually helps our environment when compared to choosing the land based animal protein alternatives.  Sea Port will continue to provide input to the FDA, EPA, USDA and the Seafood Nutrition Partnership in order to help push for increased seafood consumption in America.  We will also feature our Go Blue! Plate Choose My Seafood for Sustainability at industry events and on our website to give guidance to the American consumer in selecting from a vast variety of seafood items and eating them at the proper weekly frequencies in order to advance both human health and resource sustainability.

In 2015, Sea Port looks forward with great enthusiasm to continuing to boldly charge ahead on our Go Blue! initiative that champions the consumption of seafood to promote human health, sustainability, and environmental stewardship.  Please join us in this totally immersive pro-seafood quest so we can all make sure 2015 is truly a year in which seafood sustainability continues to advance.

Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

David Glaubke – Director of Sustainability Initiatives