Jim Hekkers of the Monterey Bay Aquarium discusses the Seafood Watch program, an educational initiative to empower consumers and businesses to make sustainable choices for healthy oceans. It started as an exhibit along with food service menu recommendations, husbandry feed changes, and developed into a guide following member requests. Jim explains with graphs and data how dramatically the biomass of table fish has fallen in just 100 years, the percentage of seafood imports in the U.S., how the guide's recommendation categories work, assessment criteria for capture fisheries and aquaculture, the guide's distribution, partners, and corporate relationships with food service companies, retailers, and suppliers.

1. The Monterey Bay
Aquarium's Seafood
Watch Program:
Promoting Ethical
Consumption
Jim Hekkers
Monterey Bay Aquarium

2. The Monterey Bay
Aquarium’s
Seafood Watch Program

3. What is Seafood Watch?
• Empowers consumers and businesses
to make choices for healthy oceans.
• Builds awareness (Why should I care?)
• Provides the knowledge (What are the
environmentally preferable choices?)
• Encourages action (What can I do?)

4. How It Started
• Exhibit “Fishing for
Solutions” (1997-1999)
• Food service menu
changes
• Husbandry feed changes
• Members Asked for
Consumer Guide

5. Atlantic Ocean
(t/km2)
Biomass of table fish in 1900
(map: V. Christensen, SAUP)

6. Atlantic Ocean
Biomass of table fish in 1999
(map: V. Christensen, SAUP)

7. US Seafood Supply
– China: 22%
– Thailand: 15%
– Canada: 13 %
– Indonesia: 6 %
– Chile: 5 %

8. The Sustainable Seafood Movement
Salience Demand
Context-setting Working with volume
activities with seafood buyers to drive
consumers, a demand
restaurants,
businesses
Supply
Identifying a viable supply through
certification and standards

9. What People Think
 80% of American active or sympathetic to the
environmental movement
 69% of Americans feel, as individuals, they can
positively impact the environment
 In many households, parents look their kids for
advice on environmental issues
 People will pay for seafood that is identified as
healthy and sustainable – Personnel benefit is a very
strong motivator

10. Seafood Watch
Sustainable Seafood
“From sources, whether fished or farmed, that can
maintain or increase production without jeopardizing
the structure and function of affected ecosystems”.
→ A Functioning ecosystem is as important as the
status of the fish stocks

11. Recommendation Categories
 Best Choices/Green: Consumers strongly
encouraged to purchase seafood in this category.
Fits SFW definition of “sustainable”.
 Good Alternatives/Yellow: Consumers are
encouraged to purchase seafood in this category, as
they are better choices than “Avoid” species.
However, some concerns remain so it does not meet
all the qualities of “sustainable”.
 Avoid/Red: Consumers are encouraged not to
consume these products, and they are considered
unsustainable, at least for now.

12. Criteria for Seafood Watch
Assessments
Capture Fisheries Aquaculture
 Inherent Vulnerability  Use of Marine Resources
 Stock Status  Risk of Escapes to Wild Stocks
 Bycatch  Risk of Disease Transfer to Wild
 Habitat Effects Stocks
 Management  Risk of Pollution and Habitat Effects
 Management
Goal: accurate, objective, balanced, thoughtful,
precautionary

13. Seafood Reports
• Typically 30-100 pages
• Detailed narrative descriptions of
factors and criteria as basis for
recommendation
• References for all information sources
• Peer reviewed by at least 2 scientific
experts
• Available at www.SeafoodWatch.org

14. Regional and National Pocket
Guides
Central US
Hawaii
Northeast
Southeast
Southwest
(English/Spanish)
West Coast
(English/Spanish)
National (English/Spanish)
National Sushi

16. Seafood Watch – Outreach – 10 years of
Activities
The Seafood Watch program works in a variety of different ways:
Seafood Watch Pocket Guides – consumer tool
 32 Million distributed
 Market Research
 Over 180 partners across the US distributing over 2.5 million pocket guides
Major Buyer partnerships – business tools
 All Fish List
 Charts of Alternatives
Mobile applications – iPhone
200,000 Unique downloads
Monterey Bay Aquarium website
Embracing the trends,
 >500,000 annual downloads from web
 Key education tools cutting edge
 Transparency

17. Carry the recommendations on your
phone

18. Website
Resources
www.seafoodwatch.org

19. The “Super Green” List
The nexus between ocean
health and human health…
• High in omega-3s (health
benefits)
• Low in contaminants (PCBs,
mercury)
• Seafood Watch “Best
Choice”

20. Turning the Tide: The State of Seafood
 Report can be found
at……
montereybayaquarium.com

21. Partners in Outreach and in
Sustainable Seafood
• Over 180 partners across the US distributing over 2.5
million pocket guides
• Over 100 Zoos, Aquariums, Science Centers
• Rebranded Sustainable Seafood Aquarium Programs –
Shedd, Seattle, Georgia, Mandalay Bay, North Carolina
• Other environmental organizations – basing their
programs on MBA - Environmental Defense Fund,
SeaChoice, FishWise – many others rely on our
research....

22. Corporate Commitments
 Food service companies: Aramark and
Compass
 Retailers: Whole Foods
 Suppliers: Santa Monica Seafood
Several others in discussion stages,
including Target and Trader Joes