Don’t Be Scared of the Water

Concerns about ocean pollution and its impact on our health are real. But the risks don’t outweigh the health, environmental, and delicious benefits of eating fish and seafood.

Most seafood is antibiotic free, and the industry is eliminating antibiotics at a faster rate than other proteins. Efforts in the seafood industry may even compliment your company’s own goals to eliminate antibiotics.

The seafood industry is also working to improve ocean health including preventing plastic pollution. Leading companies are going plastic neutral or even helping to remove plastics from our oceans. That’s a big change given that commercial fishing has been a major source of ocean plastic pollution from fishing lines, nets, and other gear left at sea.

Our oceans also need our help to avoid the impact of climate change which is making them warmer, changing water chemistry, and affecting marine life. That means that lowering the carbon footprint and shifting the mix of proteins we sell to include more fish and seafood instead of other choices is one of the most delicious ways we can do so.

The seafood industry is now being recognized as taking more steps towards sustainability than other parts of the food industry. The top ranked companies in the Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index are seafood producers, which rated higher than companies that produce meat, poultry, dairy, and plant-based proteins.

Mercury contamination in fish and seafood is also a real concern. But it’s time to reconsider mercury in fish and seafood. The risk from mercury is limited to pregnant and nursing women and only seven types of fish and seafood have levels of concern, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Those are tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, shark, orange roughy, marlin, bigeye tuna, king mackerel, and swordfish. Most kinds of fish and seafood are low in mercury and you can continue to offer fish and seafood and manage mercury risk simply by not serving or selling these varieties.

Market Insight

Consumers are concerned about the health of our oceans with good reason, and see eating fish and seafood as something that connects oceans to their own health. Younger consumers in particular are hesitant to eat more fish and seafood because they are concerned about ingesting mercury, microplastics, antibiotics, and other industrial chemicals if they do.

You can help your customers make the right choices by offering the types of fish and seafood that avoid these risks, buying seafood from companies that are working to improve our ocean health, and taking steps to protect our oceans in your own operations.