Fact Sheet

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program empowers seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. The program works to transform seafood markets in ways that create incentives for sustainable fishing and fish-farming practices. Key elements of the program include public education efforts to raise consumer awareness about sustainable seafood issues, primarily through distribution of Seafood Watch pocket guides; and outreach efforts with retailers, restaurateurs and other seafood purveyors to encourage them to make the switch to sustainable seafood.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

In 1997, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened its “Fishing for Solutions” special exhibition to inform visitors about conservation issues surrounding fishing and aquaculture practices. In the course of developing the exhibit about the environmental threats from non-sustainable practices, the aquarium evaluated the seafood it was serving through its own restaurant and catering services, and to its exhibit animals. The aquarium made a commitment to serve only seafood from environmentally responsible sources. Low-key publicizing of the change prompted visitors to ask for copies of the aquarium’s approved seafood list. From this modest beginning, the Seafood Watch program was born. In 1999, with the launch of a new and expanded aquarium website www.seafoodwatch.org, this information metamorphosed into the first Seafood Watch consumer pocket guide.

The Seafood Watch pocket guide lists ocean-friendly seafood choices for consumers in a green “Best Choices” column, and non-sustainable choices in a red “Avoid” column. Those in the “Avoid” column come from sources that are overfished, or are caught or farmed in ways that harm the environment. There is also a yellow “Good Alternatives” list; these seafood items are an acceptable option, but there is concern with how they’re caught or farmed. Pocket guides are updated every six months to incorporate the latest available research, which is included in a downloadable report on the website. The Seafood Watch website attracts thousands of visitors each year, to download pocket guides and use the online resources to make ocean-friendly choices. Our new iPhone application brings the latest Seafood Watch recommendations directly to your iPhone or iPod touch. Mobile pocket guides are also available for cell phones or other mobile devices with Internet connection by logging on to mobile.seafoodwatch.org

In 2001, Seafood Watch was awarded a grant of more than $2 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to significantly expand the program. Subsequent grants from the Packard and Annenberg foundations have supported the evolving Sustainable Seafood Initiative as it works to shift the buying habits of consumers and businesses to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.

To date, Seafood Watch and its partners (53 full-partner and 32 associate-partner organizations) have distributed more than 28 million pocket guides.  There are six regional guides (West Coast, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Central U.S. and Hawaii), plus three Spanish-language guides. Nine million pocket guides were distributed in the 2007 DVD release of the Academy Award-winning animated film, Happy Feet.

PURVEYOR OUTREACH

Increasingly, the Seafood Watch program focuses on efforts to change the buying habits of seafood purveyors: restaurants, food services providers and wholesalers. These businesses are the “gatekeepers” to the seafood supply in the United States. Restaurants alone account for approximately 70 percent (by dollar value) of all seafood sold nationwide.

Online, the Seafood Watch website (www.seafoodwatch.org) offers resources that purveyors can use to understand sustainable seafood issues and train their staff to discuss the complexities of sustainable seafood with their customers. Seafood Watch offers fact sheets and downloadable research reports. In addition it has developed a training package to aid purveyors as they move to incorporate sustainable seafood onto their menus and at their seafood counters. The Seafood Watch Training Program is available as a two-disc DVD set, with portions available online.

Since 2002, the aquarium and Seafood Watch have hosted an annual Cooking for Solutions event, which brings together celebrity chefs from across the United States and beyond to prepare gourmet dishes using sustainable seafood and organic ingredients, paired with organic and sustainable wines. These events—which reach several thousand consumers annually as well as top food journalists and food industry leaders—strengthen the connection between the foods people eat and the health of the oceans and the land. Notable chef participants have included Alice Waters, Jacques Pépin, Diana Kennedy, Martin Yan, Rick Bayless, Nora Pouillon, Rick Moonen, Barton Seaver, and more than three dozen other renowned chefs.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium works with food service providers like Bon Appétit Management Company, Compass Group North America and ARAMARK as they shift their menus and buying toward sustainable seafood and establish themselves as leaders in the transformation of the food service industry. Bon Appétit, the Aquarium’s own in-house food service provider delivers 80 million meals per year in over 400 cafés in 29 states.

Seafood Watch partners with local restaurants in the Monterey Bay region to promote ocean-friendly seafood menus, and provides tools to train wait staff to understand the issues and communicate sustainable seafood messages with restaurant patrons. Through the aquarium’s membership in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Seafood Watch brings the sustainable seafood message to tens of millions of zoo and aquarium visitors nationwide.

Updated: January 2009

Fact Sheet

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program empowers seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. The program works to transform seafood markets in ways that create incentives for sustainable fishing and fish-farming practices. Key elements of the program include public education efforts to raise consumer awareness about sustainable seafood issues, primarily through distribution of Seafood Watch pocket guides; and outreach efforts with retailers, restaurateurs and other seafood purveyors to encourage them to make the switch to sustainable seafood.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

In 1997, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened its “Fishing for Solutions” special exhibition to inform visitors about conservation issues surrounding fishing and aquaculture practices. In the course of developing the exhibit about the environmental threats from non-sustainable practices, the aquarium evaluated the seafood it was serving through its own restaurant and catering services, and to its exhibit animals. The aquarium made a commitment to serve only seafood from environmentally responsible sources. Low-key publicizing of the change prompted visitors to ask for copies of the aquarium’s approved seafood list. From this modest beginning, the Seafood Watch program was born. In 1999, with the launch of a new and expanded aquarium website www.seafoodwatch.org, this information metamorphosed into the first Seafood Watch consumer pocket guide.

The Seafood Watch pocket guide lists ocean-friendly seafood choices for consumers in a green “Best Choices” column, and non-sustainable choices in a red “Avoid” column. Those in the “Avoid” column come from sources that are overfished, or are caught or farmed in ways that harm the environment. There is also a yellow “Good Alternatives” list; these seafood items are an acceptable option, but there is concern with how they’re caught or farmed. Pocket guides are updated every six months to incorporate the latest available research, which is included in a downloadable report on the website. The Seafood Watch website attracts thousands of visitors each year, to download pocket guides and use the online resources to make ocean-friendly choices. Our new iPhone application brings the latest Seafood Watch recommendations directly to your iPhone or iPod touch. Mobile pocket guides are also available for cell phones or other mobile devices with Internet connection by logging on to mobile.seafoodwatch.org

In 2001, Seafood Watch was awarded a grant of more than $2 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to significantly expand the program. Subsequent grants from the Packard and Annenberg foundations have supported the evolving Sustainable Seafood Initiative as it works to shift the buying habits of consumers and businesses to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.

To date, Seafood Watch and its partners (53 full-partner and 32 associate-partner organizations) have distributed more than 28 million pocket guides.  There are six regional guides (West Coast, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Central U.S. and Hawaii), plus three Spanish-language guides. Nine million pocket guides were distributed in the 2007 DVD release of the Academy Award-winning animated film, Happy Feet.

PURVEYOR OUTREACH

Increasingly, the Seafood Watch program focuses on efforts to change the buying habits of seafood purveyors: restaurants, food services providers and wholesalers. These businesses are the “gatekeepers” to the seafood supply in the United States. Restaurants alone account for approximately 70 percent (by dollar value) of all seafood sold nationwide.

Online, the Seafood Watch website (www.seafoodwatch.org) offers resources that purveyors can use to understand sustainable seafood issues and train their staff to discuss the complexities of sustainable seafood with their customers. Seafood Watch offers fact sheets and downloadable research reports. In addition it has developed a training package to aid purveyors as they move to incorporate sustainable seafood onto their menus and at their seafood counters. The Seafood Watch Training Program is available as a two-disc DVD set, with portions available online.

Since 2002, the aquarium and Seafood Watch have hosted an annual Cooking for Solutions event, which brings together celebrity chefs from across the United States and beyond to prepare gourmet dishes using sustainable seafood and organic ingredients, paired with organic and sustainable wines. These events—which reach several thousand consumers annually as well as top food journalists and food industry leaders—strengthen the connection between the foods people eat and the health of the oceans and the land. Notable chef participants have included Alice Waters, Jacques Pépin, Diana Kennedy, Martin Yan, Rick Bayless, Nora Pouillon, Rick Moonen, Barton Seaver, and more than three dozen other renowned chefs.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium works with food service providers like Bon Appétit Management Company, Compass Group North America and ARAMARK as they shift their menus and buying toward sustainable seafood and establish themselves as leaders in the transformation of the food service industry. Bon Appétit, the Aquarium’s own in-house food service provider delivers 80 million meals per year in over 400 cafés in 29 states.

Seafood Watch partners with local restaurants in the Monterey Bay region to promote ocean-friendly seafood menus, and provides tools to train wait staff to understand the issues and communicate sustainable seafood messages with restaurant patrons. Through the aquarium’s membership in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Seafood Watch brings the sustainable seafood message to tens of millions of zoo and aquarium visitors nationwide.

Updated: January 2009