« November 2008 Table of Contents 
Point of View: Barton Seaver
Chef, writer, speaker, sustainable seafood advocate, Bartonseaver.org, Washington, D.C.
November 01, 2008
As education begins with inspiration and an open mind,
dinner begins with fish. Wallet guides and educated consumers
represent a small but important fraction of the seafood
industry. But while the message of ocean conservation has thus
far been championed by NGOs, soon it will shift to be the
adopted strategy of seafood businesses. It is a precarious
position for this ideology to have progressed past its original
proponents and into the hands of those who stand to make money
off products labeled as ethically superior.
As the dialogue of responsibility shifts toward businesses,
it is important that they heed the underlying principles that
have made sustainable seafood a movement. And of equal
importance is that NGOs work together with market forces to
ensure that sustainable seafood does not become simply another
label at a higher price.
Sustainable seafood must
represent the union of
conservation and profit-based industry if it is to have any
future. Presently we have a great opportunity to capitalize on
growing public interest while maintaining, if not improving,
the profitability of the seafood industry. The NGOs that have
pioneered this movement should be seen by the industry as an
asset that will enable business to succeed and our oceans to be
sustained.