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Our Laolao Launches Photo Contest

Contest Celebrates One Year Anniversary of Campaign

our laolao The Our LaoLao-Litter Free on Land and Sea campaign, based in Saipan, launched a Photo Contest honoring the one-year anniversary of the campaign. To celebrate, community members are asked to share personal photos of Laolao Bay, whether from the past or from today, that highlights what Laolao Bay means to you. Submitted entries can run the gamut, from capturing the Bay’s natural beauty or historical richness to highlighting quality time with friends and family.

Sustainable Seafood Spotlighted by SeaWeb at
Google Seafood Festival

Google Green Seafood Festival, Credit: Simone Lewis-Koskinen In celebration of ocean conservation and epicurean excellence, SeaWeb was pleased to partner with Google on their second annual Google Green Seafood Festival at their Northern California Mountain View campus on July 13.

In celebration of the company’s revolutionary purchasing policy sourcing local, seasonal, healthy and sustainable seafood – the pillars of Google’s Green Seafood policy- nineteen teams of Google chefs vied to win best dish featuring each of the nineteen ‘Google Green’ species. Festival-goers were treated to adiverse range of delectable dishes, from Cambodia street style grilled Monterey seine caught sardine sandwiches to delicately prepared white sea bass crudo wrapped-watermelon slivers with pickled rind, chili oil and Indian fish stew.

Fish Talk on the Menu at the European Seafood Exposition

Brussels Seafood Show Competition Winners Sustainable seafood was at the tip of everyone’s tongues at the 2012 European Seafood Exposition, and on their minds and in their bellies. The topic of discussion played out like a carefully planned menu that was executed to perfection.

This year’s Expo in Brussels marked a particularly notable event in the gastronome’s calendar – the announcement of the winners of France’s first ever National Catering Competition for Sustainable Seafood.

Bringing Seafood Sustainability to the Fore:
A look into Asia

North America’s largest annual seafood trade show, the International Boston Seafood Show (IBSS), brings together seafood professionals from around the world to buy, sell, trade and discuss all things seafood. The March 2012 show was the largest in the show’s history, with more than 19,000 buyers and suppliers in attendance and more than 1,000 exhibitors from 42 companies.

SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices team was in Boston to make an announcement in conjunction with an event focused on sustainability and the Asian seafood marketplace.

Read about the Show >>

Young French Chefs Tackle the Challenge of Sustainable Seafood Sourcing

Dimitri Vitry, a catering student France is Europe's second largest seafood market, with the average consumer eating 34.8kg of seafood per year, compared to the European average of 20.5kg per year. Moreover, this consumption is steadily increasing, having risen from 20kg per person per year in the 1960s.
In early October 2011, SeaWeb's Seafood Choices program and the French School of Culinary Arts, Ferrandi, funded the first national catering competition promoting sustainable seafood.

Read about the competition >>

China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, Nov 1-4, Qingdao, China

Philip Chou with seafood expo organizers, Peter Redmayne and Jennie Fu, and Han Han of SFP. Courtesy of Philip Chou. The China Fisheries & Seafood Expo is the largest seafood trade show in Asia with more than 2,000 booths spanning four exhibitor halls. Philip Chou, Kristian Teleki, and Elisabeth Vallet represented SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices initiative at the show, and promoted the 10^th International Seafood Summit. SeaWeb also secured the services of Sea Fare Group, who are the show organizers, to set up appointments with Chinese officials within the Ministry of Agriculture and to organize a half-day sustainable seafood forum.

Read about the expo >>

SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program Convenes Panel for World Oceans Day 2011

World Oceans Day 2011 Panel in Fiji On World Oceans Day 2011, SeaWeb’s Asia Pacific Program in Fiji convened a dynamic panel discussion aimed at inspiring a greater relationship between marine conservation experts and the media. Held in Suva, the country’s capital, panel members consisted of seven individuals, including journalists, community representatives and ocean conservation experts.

Read about the panel >>

KidSafe Seafood Highlights Seafood Consumption At Global Mercury Conference

KSS in Canada SeaWeb’s KidSafe Seafood program attended the 10^th annual International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP). The conference convened scientists, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations, among others, from over forty different countries to share and discuss the latest science and issues related to mercury.

Read about the conference >>

Scientists, Fishermen and Policymakers Collaborate to Gain Ground on Ocean Acidification

Scallops At the National Shellfisheries Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore, March 28 to 30, 2011, SeaWeb hosted the closing session about Ocean Chemistry and Shellfish on March 29. This town hall–style discussion reflected on the day's learning and identify opportunities for collaborative research, data collection and policy engagement on ocean acidification between agency representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), scientists, shellfish producers and other stakeholders.

Read about the workshop >>

Good Catch and Star Chefs Serve Up Sustainable Alternatives

Billingsgate Chef To help the culinary sector ride the wave of healthy businesses and healthy seas, Good Catch and Ethical Eats conducted a workshop on March 2, 2011, at the Billingsgate Seafood Training School that covered “All You Ever Wanted to Know About Seafood Sustainability But Were Afraid to Ask.” The event featured presentations about the environmental problems of seafood and provided restaurateurs, caterers and chefs a guide to the practical steps to take to improve seafood sustainability in their businesses plus alternative species to offer their customers.

Good Catch, a joint project of the Marine Conservation Society, the Marine Stewardship Council, SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices and Sustain, is helping the culinary sector navigate the often complex subject of seafood sustainability.

Find out about the workshop on sustainable alternative seafood>>

SeaWeb Helps Fijian Communities Deliver Powerful Conservation Messages

SeaWeb Fiji Workshop SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program gave guidance to about 40 community representatives from the 10 villages that make up the Kubulau District on how to keep an audience engaged, to facilitate discussion and to craft audience-focused conservation messages. The group also learned how to use storytelling to illustrate their messages. SeaWeb workshop leaders then shared presentations for the community representatives to give to their villages.

Showcasing the Power of Pacific Island Community Conservation

Francis Gabriel

To show Papua New Guinea journalists what one coastal community is doing to stem the tide of resource depletion. SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program took national newspaper and radio reporters to the village of Pere, a 1,500-person island community located in the Admiralty Islands about 186 miles (300 kilometers) north of the Papua New Guinea mainland.

Seafood Choices Laying the Foundations of Seafood Sustainability in China

Phil Chou

China exports the greatest amount of seafood of any country, and, because its growing middle class continues to demand more, it now also consumes the greatest amount of seafood per capita. Recognizing this country's expanding influence on the seafood market, Seafood Choices Outreach Manager, Philip Chou, traveled to the Chinese city of Dalian to talk about some of the major issues in the Chinese seafood industry, traceability and lack of sustainability certification, and how seafood industry representatives could incorporate sustainability into their business.

Highlighting Ocean and Human Health at National Aquarium

National Aquarium

SeaWeb's KidSafe Seafood initiative, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will participate in the National Aquarium's "Beyond the Boardwalk" Summer Fun Festival on June 26, 2010, in Baltimore. Aquarium visitors of all ages will participate in family friendly games and events designed to inspire participants to understand the connections between ocean and human health.

Marine Experts Stress Gulf Oil Spill Will Have Long-term Impacts

Justin Stumberg, U.S. Navy

On World Oceans Day, June 8, SeaWeb hosted a panel of marine experts who spoke at the National Press Club about the potential long-term environmental consequences Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The panel stressed that this catastrophe will have long-term impacts on the biologically rich deep-sea ecosystem in the Gulf as well as the sensitive ecosystem of the Louisiana delta.

Science and Seafood Industry Join to Take on Ocean Acidification

Curt Hemmel, Bay Shellfish Co.

Ocean acidification, often called "the other CO2 problem," has quietly emerged as a critical issue for fisheries. Oyster hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest have already begun experiencing the effects of ocean acidification. In order to help fishing communities and the seafood industry keep up to date on this emerging threat to their livelihoods, Seafood Choices has organized regional workshops on ocean acidification.

SeaWeb Highlighting Traceability and Seafood Champions at National Restaurant Show

Bethany Versoy

SeaWeb will be hosting a panel discussion and exhibit booth at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show, held this year from May 22 to 25 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill. This is the global restaurant and food service industry's largest annual trade show, bringing together chefs and restaurateurs from all 50 U.S. states and more than 100 countries.

SeaWeb and Disneynature's OCEANS Join Forces to Turn the Tide

Disneynature is once again bringing the wonder of our natural world to the big screen and helping conserve it in the process. "OCEANS" takes its viewers on a journey through the splendors of the ocean while also never leaving the importance of keeping it healthy behind. The film, which premiers on Earth Day, April 22, 2010, offers a companion participant's guide, "Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide," to which SeaWeb contributed.

SeaWeb to Honor and Inspire Industry Leaders at the International Boston Seafood Show

SeaWeb's Seafood Choices is presenting its 2010 Seafood Champion Awards and organizing two panels at the upcoming International Boston Seafood Show (IBSS). This year, an estimated 16,000 buyers and sellers and more than 800 exhibitors from more than 90 countries will gather in Boston for what has become North America’s largest seafood event.

Organizing conference sessions featuring forward-looking leaders in the industry and presenting the annual Seafood Champion Awards offers SeaWeb's Seafood Choices multiple opportunities to highlight sustainable business practices, connect with key supporters and engage new industry stakeholders.

Find out more about the awards and sessions at the Boston Seafood Show >>

Let the Games—and Sustainability—Begin!

The 2010 Olympic winter games launched with a spectacle that beautifully illustrated the deep ties between Canada’s people and the environment. The opening ceremonies began with the ice that supports both human and other animals breaking apart to show the ocean beneath, which was filled with spouting whales. These were then followed by the salmon that is so essential to both the people of the First Nations and those who later inhabited the Pacific Northwest. In 2012, with SeaWeb’s help, the Olympics will once again have an opportunity to highlight the importance of sustaining marine resources, this time through the seafood it serves.

Find out how SeaWeb had a hand in making this win-win scenario happen. >>

SeaWeb Assists EBM Outreach Efforts in Oregon

SeaWeb's Ecosystem-based Management Communications Project team traveled to Port Orford, Oregon, in October 2009 to work with a local nongovernmental organization and co-host two interactive workshops that brought together local officials, fishermen and the resident community. The goal was to discuss marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management (EBM), as well as the challenges and on-the-ground successes of implementing EBM in their community.

Port Orford, a small coastal town in southern Oregon, has gained recognition and support from policymakers, management agencies and nongovernmental organizations as a model for how community-based ocean management can and should work. Working with the local fishing community, the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT) has spearheaded the resource management efforts adopting an EBM approach. POORT is an environmental nongovernmental organization guided by a board of five commercial fishermen who support an ecosystem-based approach to conserving their local environment and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Port Orford coastal ecological system and the social system dependent on it.

SeaWeb Helps Fiji Journalists Get Immersed in Critical Marine Issues

Nesting beach at Likuliku Resort in Mamanucas

The Pacific Islands are on the front lines of climate change impacts and the increasing depletion of marine resources. At the same time, the cost of travel and limited infrastructure in small developing island nations often limits the media's ability to report on these critical issues firsthand.

To help remedy that, SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program took a group of eight local media and journalism students from the University of South Pacific by boat to the Mamanuca Islands, a local volcanic island chain that is a popular tourist destination. The media trip was designed to show journalists the marine issues facing local, often subsistence communities and learn about conservation programs that are addressing those challenges.