Seafood Champion Awards

First presented in 2006, the Seafood Champion Awards annually recognize individuals and companies for outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood. Seafood Choices Alliance established the award to honor those in the seafood industry whose past and/or present contributions demonstrate a commitment to advancing the marketplace for ocean-friendly seafood.

Now accepting nominations for the 2009 awards!

• To learn more about the process or how to submit a nomination, please see Guidelines below

2008 Seafood Champions

The 2008 award recipients were announced during the Boston Seafood Show on February 24. The Alliance showcased sustainability and celebrated this year's Seafood Champions in front of a packed audience at its cocktail reception. The 2008 Champions represent leadership on both sides of the Atlantic and, for the first time, recognize the fishing and aquaculture sectors.

Contact us to learn more about these individuals/companies and request interviews or photos, or click here to view the Champions' profiles.

• Keep reading below, or download the press release in our Newsroom
• 2007 Seafood Champions
• 2006 Seafood Champions

The recipients of this year’s Seafood Champions Awards represent individuals and organizations that play a leading role in the movement towards sustainable seafood. Winners, selected from among the ten finalists announced in January at the Seafood Summit in Barcelona, are having a positive impact on seafood industry, and display leadership, dedication and passion for sustainability in the increasingly complicated global seafood arena.

Association du Grand Littoral Atlantique (AGLIA) Bay of Biscay, France -
AGLIA has worked together for several years with the French Comité National des Pêches Maritimes et des Elevages Marins to promote selective devices and to organize large scale trials at sea. The project has successfully engaged all the fishermen from the Bay of Biscay nephrops’ fishery, about 250 trawlers, and reduced the catch of undersize nephrops and other marine life.

Mr. Mike Mitchell (Foodvest), United Kingdom -
Mike Mitchell is an expert in seafood traceability and sustainability with Foodvest with over 25 years of experience in the seafood industry. He helped establish Young’s as the number one provider of MSC products to the UK’s retail sector. Additionally, he bridges the science and fishing sectors through his work with the European Seafood Processors Association (AIPCE).

The Plitt Company, Chicago, Illinois, USA -
Plitt was the first seafood wholesaler in Chicago to achieve Marine Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification and is committed to helping make MSC products more widely available. Currently, the company is working with the Ocean Conservancy to encourage customer involvement in improving Gulf of Mexico red snapper conservation.

Chef Barton Seaver and Hook Restaurant, Washington, D.C., USA -
Executive chef Barton Seaver and his team at Hook Restaurant embody seafood sustainability for the restaurant industry. Hook is a 100 percent sustainable, fish-focused restaurant opened by Seaver in spring 2007. In that short time, Seaver and his staff at Hook have won a reputation for creative sustainability by embracing new, responsibly sourced fish species and by utilizing the restaurant as a forum for educating diners on sustainability.

Sunburst Trout Co, Canton, North Carolina, USA -
Sunburst Trout has a constant eye on conservation and a theory of “waste not, want not.” Owner Sally Eason has created a company that uses every aspect of a trout and composts all waste. A waste product 20 years ago – the eggs – are now the most valuable product, being made into nationally acclaimed trout caviar. Regionally and nationally, the company is a strong voice for promoting economic and sustainable growth in aquaculture.

Mr. Bart van Olphen (Fishes), The Netherlands -
Retail shop Fishes began when Mr. Bart van Olphen began selling fresh, sustainable seafood after witnessing many of the problems in the seafood industry at the Fish Auction of Scheveningen in the Netherlands. Fishes was the first continental European retail fish shop to obtain MSC Chain of Custody Certification. Van Olphen has since expanded to a wholesale company focused exclusively on MSC-certified fish, restaurants and a catering branch serving fish products with similar sustainability credentials, and operating retail branches in Holland, Germany and Belgium.

2008 Champion Finalists, named at Seafood Summit 2008 in Barcelona, also included:

Australis Aquaculture U.S., Turners Falls, Massachusetts, USA -
Australis U.S. raises barramundi in an indoor, fully contained operation, proving that sustainable aquaculture can be a commercially successful venture. Australis’ farming system surpasses the performance of many traditional operations by isolating fish from the surrounding environment, preventing farmed fish escapes and the transference of pathogens, sterilizing and recycling 99.9% of all the water the plant uses, and achieving food conversion ratios of less then 1:1.

Bantry Bay Seafoods Ltd, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland -
Bantry Bay Seafoods established its first Environmental Management System in 2006 at both its farm and factory facilities. Acknowledging the improved environmental performance benefits, the company approached BIM and requested the development of an eco-standard to the same independent level of accreditation. The company has since become the first processor to achieve certification to this eco-standard, processing more than 4500 tonnes of mussels annually.

Mr. Carl Salamone (Wegmans), USA -
As VP of Seafood for Wegmans, Carl Salamone has been a steadfast supporter of seafood sustainability and environmental standards within the retail sector. Under his leadership, Wegmans has instituted first-of-its-kind health and environmental standards for two farmed seafood species (salmon and shrimp), both of which were developed in partnership with Environmental Defense. The standards are part of the retailer’s procurement policy.

Ms. Cindy Walter (Passionfish Restaurant), Pacific Grove, California, USA -
Cindy Walter is co-owner of Passionfish Restaurant along with husband and chef Ted Walter. Passionfish upholds a strict policy of sustainable and environmentally friendly purchasing, in large measure due to Walter’s passion for protecting our marine resources. Through many positions within her local community, she has has taken an active role to promote sustainable seafood, including to help the City of Pacific Grove become the second city in the country to adopt a Sustainable Seafood Resolution.

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Guidelines for Submitting Nominations

We are now accepting nominations for the 2009 awards. Click here for general inquiries or view the Frequently Asked Questions. Click here to download and print these Guidelines.

Any individual, company or organization may submit nominations on their own behalf or on behalf of others, with no limit on the number of nominations submitted. Candidates may be nominated by others or may self-nominate.

Nominees may include individuals, companies or organizations from the fishing, aquaculture, seafood supply and distribution, retail, restaurant and foodservice sectors, as well as other stakeholders to the seafood industry such as conservation, academia and the media.

Recipients of a previous Seafood Champion Award may not be considered for a subsequent award within five years of receiving the initial award; in addition, past recipients must show demonstrable progress in further advancing seafood sustainability goals. Finalists or candidates from a past year may be considered anew for the current year.

Nominations should be accompanied by a detailed written description of the accomplishments of the nominee – keeping in mind the purpose and characteristics described above – and an explanation of why those accomplishments merit a Seafood Champion award. For example, nominations should explain:

• How the nominee has influenced others and/or served as a role model with regard to advancing the company or industry’s path towards sustainability;
• What a nominee has done to distinguish themselves among their peers in terms of expanding the marketplace for sustainable seafood; and
• Creative and innovative solutions the nominee has developed to promote seafood sustainability or address operational challenges.

Nominations should not exceed two pages in length. Only complete written nominations will be considered. Brief letters of endorsement or supporting materials (that cannot be included in the two-page nomination) are welcome but not required.

All material/information submitted as part of the nomination process will be kept confidential. Candidates will only be informed of their nomination status in the interest of disclosure and in case they wish to provide information of their own (if not self-nominated). Pursuant to the selection committee’s (comprised of Alliance staff and a panel of independent reviewers) final determination, the Alliance will announce the 2008 finalists and award recipients.

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How to Submit Nominations

Include the name of the person submitting the nomination and the name of the person or organization being nominated along with the two-page written justification (read the above Guidelines carefully before composing and submitting your nomination). Be sure to provide contact information for both the nominator as well as the nominee, if different.

Please submit nominations via email (preferred):
To Joey Brookhart with “2008 Seafood Champion Awards” in the subject line.

Nominations will also be accepted by fax and mail, though we strongly encourage electronic submissions.
Fax: 301.495.4846

Mail: Seafood Choices Alliance, Attn: 2009 Seafood Champion Awards
8401 Colesville Road, Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA

Please direct media and other inquiries to Joey Brookhart directly via email or 831.277.0271.