Being one step away from the consumer, it is their views that can be used as a stepping stone and platform to success in an industry that is striving to add more value to its raw products.
For UK retailer Sainsbury's annual sales of fish and fish products have reached almost GBP 200 million.
The trend also for convenience food is stronger than it has ever been, especially in Europe and Sainsbury's say fish will play an important part in this evolution.
The supermarket currently sells around 45 different types of fish compared to 20 years ago when there was less than a dozen in store.
Sainsbury's technical manager George French says although it is difficult to predict what the consumer will be demanding from the fishing industry in the next few years, there is no doubt quality will be the key. "Whether in the future the consumer will have a choice of fresh cod or farmed cod and whether one is more expensive than the other the consumer will almost certainly make their decision based on quality."
As food scares have escalated over the past few years, consumers are being more and more demanding in knowing where their fish comes from and how it is produced.
Therefore traceability is now fundamental to the industry. "Changes with labelling requirements, will bring a expectation from the consumer and will make retailers more accountable, at the moment its just a piece of cod to the consumer but in the future it will change, " says George White, of Sainsbury's environmental team.
But will the introduction of another environmental label without any direct education confuse the consumer?
"Certainly to date there has been no negative feed back, but to be fair the environmental labels are on only a modest number of products at the moment" says George White, "but certainly there does have to be the right level of education into what the labels stand for an mean"
This goes for farmed fish as well. George French thinks both fresh and farmed fish will be integrated on retailers shelves in the future and although retailers have battled with bad press for farmed fish in the past few years, George French says the confidence to buy is strong again and will almost certainly pay a premium so that what they require meets a certain standard.
"Consumers are more adventurous than they have ever been and that can only be good for the fishing sector."
Sainsbury's in particular have also been bold in attempting to introduce some of the more exotic fish.
In the past few months the supermarket has introduced the Red Emperor from the Indian Ocean and will also launch the tuna like Wahoo.
If this continues, it can only be a good thing for the industry as fishing companies look to diversify from coastal fishing to deep sea fishing where a whole range of different species are available.
Sainsbury's latest project over the next three years is to investigate the management of tuna fisheries around the world in an attempt to ensure the most popular species of tuna remain sustainable.
According to Sainsbury's, in the Atlantic the number of spawning blue fin tuna has declined by nearly 90% and fishing for them is now restricted.
In association with the UK based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the supermarket will sponsor a tuna fisherie s officer to work on this project in an attempt to get the tuna fisheries certified under MSC conditions.
The tuna fisheries officer will work with tuna fisheries, governments and NGOs with a view to not only encourage the fisheries to apply for certification but to generally promote sustainable fishing around the globe, but mainly in the Pacific area.
The second step will be to engage the fisheries and organisations to continue in a sustainable manner.
For Sainsbury's tuna is vital. Sales are almost GBP12 million a year in the UK alone. "Our goal is to be more sustainable in our sourcing of the fish as well," says George White.
It is the first time a major retailer has been involved in a project of this kind and although it is an ambitious attempt to obtain sustainable tuna fisheries, Sainsbury's is confident that it can go some way towards supporting the solving of some of the most complex issues surrounding global fishing.
"We thought if we could crack tuna fisheries then you could have any fishery managed in a sustainable way, simply because it is one of the most complex and commercial fisheries in the world., we've probably picked the most difficult one to tackle."
It is a very ambitious goal, but if it is successful then we will learn a lot more about what it takes to make a fishery sustainable, and hopefully the industry will learn something as well," says George White.
If the tuna project is a success, then Sainsbury's hope others will take notice and will work with the MSC or other organisations on similar projects. The supermarket will also consider working with other species.
But what is the retailers view on what is going on in Europe with regard to fish stocks and management.
"There is not one answer obviously. From our point of view we still want to offer the common species. It is important not to move the problem and just source from somewhere else because we can't get what we want, from where we want it, otherwise you are taking the problem to another fishery or sector of the industry.
"Globally fish stocks are in crisis and that has to be accepted but it is important the the EC and Government around the world to support not only attempts to make the global fishing industry more sustainable, but any transition or diversification that may happen," says George White.
"The affect of the CFP does distort the problems and it becomes like a political problem."
He adds: "What is ironic is that we can't source from European waters to the standards we can else where in the world."
George French says there is still a need to convince fishermen to think about the longterm view as well as the short: "But to give the fishing industry a longterm view you have to give them longterm hope. If they think they have a future then they will put up with everything they can until a solution is found or it is taken away from them,"he says.
