Our vision is for Canada to be positioned as a global leader in environmental conservation and social responsibility in seafood production and procurement.

All Canadian fisheries and aquaculture operations will meet rigorous standards criteria in support of healthy ocean ecosystems and human communities. Canadian seafood businesses will label seafood properly and meet the Common Vision steps set by the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions. Fisheries, aquaculture and traceability policies and regulation will be in place to support these goals.

Organization history

Since our founding in 2006 until 2017, SeaChoice’s focus was to increase consumer awareness and develop materials on seafood sustainability in Canada. Our primary goal was shifting seafood procurement by Canadian suppliers and retailers away from unsustainable sources to more sustainable options.

We created easy-to-use tools, based on scientific assessments, to help Canadians make the best seafood choices. We provided advice to help consumers make sustainable seafood purchases using a “red”(Avoid), “yellow” (Some Concerns) and “green” (Best Choice) ranking system.

One of SeaChoice’s primary initiatives was working directly with Canadian retailers to establish sustainable seafood purchasing policies and to implement market-facing sustainable seafood programs.

Over the past decade, our retailer partnerships successfully shifted seafood procurement away from unsustainable sources, and developed consumer awareness of sustainable seafood options in Canada. With the success of our retailer commitments, we reached a limit in our ability to help retailers influence change on the water, as the majority of “red-ranked” seafood products were replaced with more sustainable alternatives.

Our vision is for Canada to be positioned as a global leader in environmental conservation and social responsibility in seafood production and procurement.

To ensure sustainable seafood supply and demand continues to increase in Canada, we recognized the need to expand our focus throughout the seafood supply chain, and to aggregate our market focus nationwide.

Current Approach

SeaChoice is embarking on several initiatives to continue improving the sustainability of seafood available in Canada. Among our many efforts toward this goal are:

• Providing retailers with tools and incentives to improve their sustainable seafood commitments and create in-house policies
• Using market leverage to improve some of the least sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production
• Ensuring that seafood certification and ranking systems are as robust as possible
• Improving transparency and traceability in the seafood supply chain by reforming seafood labelling legislation in Canada, verifying seafood labelling through DNA testing in Canadian markets, and working on technical solutions for traceability

SeaChoice’s work is supported by our partner organizations’ long-term engagement in fisheries and aquaculture management, policy improvements, eco-labels, and incentives for improved fishing and farming practices.