Seafood Sustainability

Preserving our Shared Future Through Sustainable Seafood

There’s no doubt that you’ve heard the word “sustainable” thrown around a lot, especially when it comes to food. From sustainably sourced produce to sustainably raised meats, this word is popping up on labels left and right.

At North Coast Seafoods, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a practice we live by to deliver our customers the best, high-quality seafood available. In the end, sustainable seafood benefits everyone - our customers, fishermen, and, of course, the environment.

Sustainable Fish and Shellfish

Simply put – Sustainable Seafood means seafood that is caught, farmed, or harvested using environmentally harmonious and socially responsible methods that jeopardize neither the health of our oceans nor the stability of the species in question.

Sustainability isn’t about drastic measures. Rather, it’s about creating more efficient, environmentally-friendly processes that can be sustained with minimal impact on natural resources.

How Does North Coast Ensure Sustainably Sourced Fish?

As a company that depends on our oceans’ natural resources, we are keenly aware of our responsibility to source and promote sustainable seafood. We are proud to work with a number of local and international sustainability organizations – such as the Best Aquaculture Practices, Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council – to ensure that our seafood is environmentally responsible.

Sustainable Seafood is a story of continuous improvement, rather than a final destination to be reached. As part of the global seafood community, North Coast Seafoods regularly evaluates our impact and looks for new ways to make further improvements to our overall sustainability. This includes our fishing and harvesting policies all the way to our freezing and packaging methods.

What is the Most Sustainable Seafood?

Both Wild Caught and Farmed seafood can be sustainable and are each essential to ensuring continued seafood availability for future generations. What matters the most is how the seafood is raised (in some cases), harvested, and packaged.

Overfishing is one of the biggest threats facing our oceans today. With seafood consumption rising worldwide, well-managed ocean-raised (farmed) fish can take pressure off wild fisheries, where 80% of wild fish stocks are harvested at full capacity. It’s easier to manage the production of farmed seafood to keep the supply of fish and shellfish consistent.

For Wild Caught Seafood, sustainability means the populations are well-managed and not overfished, and the fishing method has minimal impact on habitat and other wildlife (limiting bycatch and minimizing damage to marine habitats).

For Aquaculture, or farm raised seafood, sustainability means minimizing impacts to the environment by limiting habitat damage, pollution, escapes of farmed fish and using sustainable feed ingredients. And no matter how your seafood is raised or caught, sustainable harvesting and packaging methods should also be emphasized.

There are no clearly established steps to seafood sustainability - so we’ve created our own. We honor our responsibility to source certified sustainable seafood in a number of ways. From utilizing unique flash freezing methods to partnering with local and international sustainability groups, we can work toward a better future.

Of course, our commitment to seafood sustainability doesn’t end here. We are always looking for innovative ways to improve processes to mitigate our environmental impact while delivering delicious seafood to our customers.

Partnering with local and international sustainability groups to provide Certified Sustainable Seafood

There are many organizations that specialize in seafood sustainability. North Coast Seafoods seeks out partnerships to improve our sustainability and pass on these benefits to customers.