How to Support Sustainable Seafood and a Regenerative Ocean Food System
By Pat Schnettler, an IOC Ambassador, and Mandi Sit of 12 Tides

The facts: Challenges in the seafood industry
Did you know 90% of our seafood in the U.S. is imported? Seafood goes through long, non-transparent, and intricate supply chains that make it challenging for consumers to pick sustainable options. Consequently, 20% of seafood is mislabeled, making it near impossible for consumers like you to make better choices.
Additionally, over 85% of global fisheries are fished at or beyond capacity, putting pressure on ecosystems and creating a boom in aquaculture industries that have negative impacts including polluted water systems, transfer of disease and parasites among fish, and loss in marine life. With hundreds of species sourced from various parts of the world, seafood is infinitely more complex than any other protein, making sustainable options hard to identify and understand.
With hundreds of species sourced from various parts of the world, there are often many fill-in-the-blanks in the supply chain, making tracing where our seafood comes from challenging. Thus identifying sustainable options can be hard without consulting a knowledgeable manager or seafood app.

Why is this important?
Opaque supply chains and the push for low prices continue to contribute to human rights violations across the globe. In fact, slavery in the seafood world is not uncommon. Distance, language and cultural barriers, and the fact that seafood is passed through multiple U.S. distributors, make the process hard for companies to trace origins and track transparency.
Moreover, while we could opt for sustainable domestic options, having low cost imported options is more favored among big companies and corporations. The lack of consumer push for transparency and sustainability thus disincentives producers from making the better choices for the planet. With our choices, we all can help avoid causing environmental harm like coastline destruction, algal blooms, oceanic pollution, and overfishing.
What can I do?
- Ask questions about your seafood before you purchase it. Use your resources: ask the grocery manager handling your seafood at the market or consult a seafood app. We love Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch which finds the most sustainably sourced seafood options in the region!
- Support legislation through voting, signing petitions or calling your state representative to help protect marine species critical to sustainable seafood ecosystems (like opposing Pebble Mine). Every signature and phone call counts towards creating stronger legislation.
- Consider purchasing shellfish and kelp (alternatives to fish). Both are “zero input” crops grown without pesticides, fertilizers or freshwater, making their production the most sustainable on earth. They also actively improve surrounding ecosystems by removing excess carbon from our oceans, reversing acidification, improving water quality and creating a habitat for diverse marine life.
- Snack sustainably! At 12 Tides, we make tasty, ocean-friendly snacks made with kelp from regenerative ocean farms.
As consumers, we have the opportunity to bring large-scale change through our everyday choices. Being informed about where our food comes from is crucial to creating more sustainable food systems, as is taking action when we aren’t satisfied with the current practices. Starting conversations with friends and family are also seemingly small but key steps to generating more awareness and changing the habits of what and how we eat.
Together, we can make better choices and help make sustainable seafood a part of our daily culture.
