Having spent years talking to seafood consumers, fishermen, and even fishery management professionals about the market for sustainable seafood and Otolith's place in it, we are now starting a bi-weekly blog as another venue to discuss these issues.We, at Otolith, are eager to learn more about our consumers and their interest in seafood blog sites . . . Send comments! Write us with your concerns about the seafood industry, its responsibility to the environment, its market! Ask us how the industry operates, how we vet our fisheries, or how to make sustainable mang-salmon poi!
TODAY'S TOPIC: Where does the money go?Individuals who work and make their living from sustainable seafood resources must be able to generate an adequate income, and it is apparent that the costs of managing our farmed and wild seafood for long term sustainable yield and healthfulness are more than the consumer and harvester can bear under the models of employed by the seafood corporations that exist today. The questions then becomes: How do we make managers and CEOs of profitable seafood corporations responsible for their share of the burden of these costs? Or, if that is not possible, how can we enable consumers and harvesters to be able to afford the responsibility if they agree to share it?
Otolith's first suggestion is to allow more efficient sharing of the responsibility between market and harvester through purchasing direct from harvesters or small processors who sell sustainable seafood. Otolith is a brand which promotes the highest quality affordable seafood which meets environmental standards and contributes money per pound toward the costs of fishery management.
This model of enabling sustainable seafood access has only become relevant in recent years. Historically, individuals with interests in seafood corporation entities have held influential positions on the regional fishery management boards responsible for evaluating the expensive data collected to determine the health and prognosis of our many fisheries and oceans. The resulting conflict of interest, which coincided with the seafood industry's attempts to maximize financial benefit through the economies of scale, is finally being addressed in the regulations that govern the regional fishery management councils. Individuals with a conflict of interest are becoming increasingly less powerful; their ability to demonstrate support for the exploitation of resources is reduced to rhetoric as their council voting privileges are restricted.
A limited number of seafood corporations are responsible for determining the dock value of seafood in America and the cost of seafood around the world. The amount of wild seafood being harvested around the world and in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the USA is greater than it has ever been. The associated existing catch levels cannot be sustained. Similarly, the amount of farm raised seafood around the world and in the USA is also greater than it has ever been and it too has an environmental impact which is threatening our planets homeostasis.
Each of our world's largest seafood corporations buys, processes, and distributes seafood which is unsustainable. Only seafood that has measurably better historical harvests and lower contaminant levels under present conditions may be considered "sustainable" by Otolith. Among other things, Otolith evaluates such seafood according to its environmental impact, fishery management effectiveness (or other regulatory management if farmed), and footprint (carbon or otherwise) associated with its distribution (i.e., moving food into and out of markets far from its source).
Otolith's goal is to remain flexible during economic recession, using economies of scale to improve new areas of the seafood industry and rewarding harvesters and small processors who have already achieved results that meet our highest commitment stands.
The continued existence of our world seafood resources requires seafood companies that buy, process, and sell only sustainable seafood. Our education, experience, and professional contacts have put Otolith on a path to learn whether it is possible to support the individuals and habitats necessary to provide the amazing seafood that I love to this generation and the next.
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