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Sourcing Seafood

The must-have resource for those who buy and sell ocean-friendly seafood. Now in its second print edition, with over 50 species (19 of which are new) and 450 suppliers! Click here to buy your copy today.

The online edition includes all of the same great information in an easy to use format.

• Find Seafood: Up-to-date conservation information, buying tips and health advisories for ocean-friendly seafood
• Find a Supplier: A directory of more than 400 suppliers with profiles of progressive fishermen and fish farmers

The first edition of Sourcing Seafood (published 2004) is available for download at no charge to all visitors to this site. Download a PDF version of Sourcing Seafood.

• Overview
• Purpose: Filling A Gap
• How to use Sourcing Seafood
• A Note to Users
• Acknowledgements
• Praise for Sourcing Seafood

Overview

Seafood Choices Alliance is pleased to present the online edition of Sourcing Seafood: A Professional’s Guide to Procuring Ocean-Friendly Fish and Shellfish. This resource identifies over 400 suppliers of sustainable seafood as well as valuable information on seafood species. By identifying better practices and the sources for ocean-friendly products, Seafood Choices Alliance supports differentiation in the marketplace so that these suppliers are rewarded with increased demand. It is our hope that this and successive editions of Sourcing Seafood will encourage suppliers to promote ocean-friendly fishing and aquaculture methods and make it easier for seafood consumers—from big corporate buyers to individuals—to make smart choices when choosing seafood.

Sourcing Seafood is divided into two parts. Find Seafood contains valuable information on many ocean-friendly seafood items, from farmed abalone to wild salmon. Find a Supplier is a directory of suppliers of the seafood items profiled in the species pages. Those suppliers denoted as “preferred” have committed to selling only ocean-friendly species (click here for more information on the preferred designation). The profiles of both species and suppliers will be updated frequently as new information becomes available.

The information regarding the status of a species and how it is fished or farmed reflects the most current research available from conservation, government, academic, scientific and industry sources. In keeping with its title, this resource covers only those species that are better environmental choices in seafood—those that are fished or farmed in a way that involves little or no impact on the environment and whose numbers are considered to be ample. The majority of suppliers listed are primary suppliers—processors that buy from fishing boats, individual fishermen who market directly, and fish and shellfish farmers. In some cases, cooperatives, associations, and distributors have been included as well to aid in identifying additional sources.

Purpose

There was a time not so long ago when many thought the ocean was so vast that it could absorb whatever was put into it and replenish whatever was taken from it. Today, we know how wrong those assumptions were. Many fisheries have reached maximum capacity, and some historically important ones have collapsed; nearly one-quarter of the fish caught worldwide are discarded as unusable or undesirable; and aquaculture is expanding rapidly in a regulatory vacuum, in many cases to the detriment of the coastal environment worldwide.

At the same time, demand for seafood continues to grow, along with the planet’s human population. It is ever more apparent that the health of individuals and societies alike is inextricably linked to the health of food sources, including the ocean. Consumers are beginning to demand food that not only tastes good but is better for the environment.

Sourcing Seafood was created as a tool for Alliance members that understood and believed in the importance of smart seafood choices but did not know how or where to find it. Sourcing Seafood fulfills that need by connecting those that want to sell and serve ocean-friendly seafood with those supplying it. With restaurants and retailers now able to reliably source ocean-friendly seafood, consumers can also rest assured that their demand for these products will be met.

The seafood choices movement has come a long way from its beginnings just a few years ago. Once on the fringes of industry, today the movement is at its very core. By working together, conservationists and individuals from the seafood sector can protect the future of our ocean resources and, by extension, the seafood industry itself. As the global trade association for the issue of ocean-friendly seafood, Seafood Choices Alliance is the place where these two groups can come together to pursue the shared goals of a healthy ocean and an abundant seafood supply.

How to Use Sourcing Seafood

Where does black cod come from and how is it sold? When is fresh king salmon available? What kinds of farm-raised seafood are environmentally responsible choices? Are there suppliers or producers of wild or farmed striped bass in my area? Sourcing Seafood helps busy professionals answer these and other important questions.

Begin by browsing the species pages in “Find Seafood” to learn more about a particular fish’s or shellfish’s seasonality, buying tips, product forms, conservation notes, health information, and interesting facts. If you’re confused about the fish lingo, you can view the glossary in the Resources section of this site for definitions of commonly used terms and explanations of fishing gear and farming practices.

Or check out “Find a Supplier” and look up suppliers for your favorite seafood items. Suppliers can be found by searching particular species, and your search can be narrowed down even further to find suppliers in your area. Sourcing Seafood provides full contact information for each supplier listed and links to supplier websites when available.

A Note to Users

Suppliers listed in Sourcing Seafood sell at least one of the highlighted ocean-friendly species and are either members of Seafood Choices Alliance or were identified through research and discussions with those in both the conservation community and seafood industry. The Alliance does not, however, endorse or certify these businesses. This guide merely seeks to highlight those businesses offering better environmental choices in seafood. We strongly encourage you to visit supplier web sites, engage in conversations with these fishermen or farmers, and ask questions about their operations. In the end, it is up to you to determine your own level of comfort with your food sources.

The online edition of Sourcing Seafood represents the first attempt to incorporate ocean-friendly seafood supply information in one comprehensive site. By no means does this online edition list every single ocean-friendly seafood supplier. As anyone who handles seafood knows, fisheries and farming operations are complex in their management. This edition of the sourcebook is a product of the information available at the time of its development; regular updates to the website and updated printed editions will ensure continued accuracy. Finally, there may be disagreement between conservationists and industry insiders about the level of sustainability of certain farming or fishing practices and the effectiveness of current management systems. Sourcing Seafood recognizes the complexity of the issues. Users should view this resource as one more tool enabling the buyer to make the best purchasing decisions possible.

The online and future printed editions of this guide will benefit from suggestions and input from all interested parties, including fisheries groups, aquaculture organizations, suppliers, and buyers. (Click here to send us your suggestions.) The seafood business is changing constantly, particularly as more individuals recognize the importance of sustainability and better practices. As this occurs, more of the suppliers in Sourcing Seafood will become “preferred” suppliers and the overall number of suppliers included in this resource will continue to grow. As with the expanded list of species in the online edition, in the future we hope to include additional species that may not be considered ocean-friendly today but that, through improvements in fishing and farming methods or management schemes, might be tomorrow.

Acknowledgements

Sourcing Seafood would not have been possible without the support of many organizations and individuals. Seafood Choices Alliance wishes to thank The David and Lucile Packard Foundation for its generous support. A special thank you to seafood industry veterans Howard Johnson and Peter Redmayne, as well as Carrie Brownstein, for their writing and painstaking research of ocean-friendly seafood suppliers. We would also like to express our appreciation to SeaWeb, especially Vikki Spruill and Dawn Martin for their leadership and over-arching vision, without which the Seafood Choices Alliance would not exist. We wish to acknowledge Lisa Dropkin of Edge Research for her contribution to a greater understanding of the seafood marketplace. We are most grateful to Janin/Cliff Design, Inc. for its expertise and patience and to our editor, Jean Brodsky Bernard, for her diligence. All fish and shellfish illustrations are the artistry of B.Guild/ChartingNature, www.chartingnature.com.

Conservation partners whose research and expertise provided invaluable information on the status of the species covered in this book include Blue Ocean Institute, Caviar Emptor, Environmental Defense, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the SeaWeb Aquaculture Center . Further thanks to Environmental Defense for also providing the majority of the health advisory information contained in the book and on the website. We thank these organizations and all Alliance partners for their significant contributions.

We would also like to thank the many individuals and businesses in the seafood industry that offer the ocean-friendly seafood items featured on the following pages, thereby supporting a lasting and diverse supply of seafood for generations to come. We dedicate Sourcing Seafood to you.

Praise for Sourcing Seafood (first edition)

“As a distributor of ocean-friendly seafood products, Eco-Fish know its challenging for chefs and retailers to research and source sustainable seafood.  Sourcing Seafood is a fantastic resource, providing a great service by pointing out those fishermen and suppliers working hard to ensure their products are high-quality and sustainable”

            - Henry Lovejoy
            EcoFish, Inc. (Portsmouth, NH)

"This guide couldn’t come at a more critical time for the ocean. Sourcing Seafood is a useful tool for people, such as myself, who are trying to make responsible seafood decisions whenever possible. It makes purchasing seafood – and feeling good about it – a whole lot easier."

            - Rick Moonen, Executive Chef/Partner
            Restaurant RM (New York, NY)

“My family has been farming trout in North Carolina for three generations and we care about every step in our process. We see this guide to sourcing seafood as a thoughtful and timely resource for all of industry that will help like-minded, concerned retailers and chefs choose seafood products that match their high standards for quality, taste and environmental friendliness. Thank you, Seafood Choices Alliance”

           - Sally Eason, Owner
            Sunburst Trout Farm (Canton, NC)