Better Together

Last week, I granted an interview to a reporter with a well-known U.S.-based media outlet who seemed determine to pit one segment of the industry against another, assuming that the two can’t coexist and that one segment’s gain is the other’s loss. Despite his black-and-white line of questioning I finally challenged his hypothesis, countering that the two already coexist and in fact complement each other, opening up sales channels that didn’t previously exist.

It should be no surprise that public awareness of aquaculture and fishing aren’t progressing more swiftly. And the reporter’s questions weren’t crazy: We are still taking shots at one another, as if it’s a zero-sum game. We’re not doing enough to buck the misperception that aquaculture and fishing are in conflict. We’re not doing enough to push back against those profiting from this perceived conflict.

If we accomplish anything at this year’s Responsible Seafood Summit, it’s a better understanding what a more unified industry looks like. We hope to do that through sharing success stories and connecting segments of the industry that customarily don’t interact. It’ll be fulfilling. It’ll be entertaining. And at times it’ll be uncomfortable. It’s supposed to be.

As everything for the event comes together –?speakers, field trips, receptions, ceremonies and more – I’m challenging myself to reach out to as many new organizations as possible, or rather organizations new to the Responsible Seafood Summit and the work of the Global Seafood Alliance. If you’re planning on joining us in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, in October, I challenge you to do the same. Only through unification can we finally put an end to this perceived rivalry.