Blue foods have all the right attributes to be the protein heroes on our plates, insist culinary leaders

With no clear, go-to definition, “sustainability” is a word that often rankles – particularly irking people connected to the seafood space. Yet it continues to be one of the widest-used terms the industry has; it’s applied in wide variety of different contexts and circumstances to imply any number of things. It’s been most commonly given as an indication that products are sourced from well-managed, healthy stocks or are species that were caught or farmed using methods that have a minimal impact on the marine environment. More recently, alongside the growth of certification schemes and third-party accreditation, the sustainability agenda has extended further still to examine and evidence the social and ethical impacts of seafood production and fish welfare.

But that’s far from the end of sustainability’s evolution. In a conference session at the recent Seafood Expo Global (SEG) 2024 in Barcelona, acclaimed US chef and author Barton Seaver offered another standpoint: that in the context of serving up blue foods, sustainability should be about intention, and what a chef, kitchen or restaurant is looking to accomplish.

Seaver explained that when he stepped out of the kitchen to take up a fellowship with National Geographic, he quickly realised that as well as offering the opportunity to reduce the impact on ecosystems, there’s also a “responsibility in sustainability” whereby the impact that ecosystems have on us are also maximised for positive outcomes in terms of economics, environment and public health.

“I got very interested in public health as a measure of thriving humans, because to me, and the end result of sustainability is the endurance of thriving humans,” he said.