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seafood market's biggest buyers, a sea change toward ecological sustainability is
brewing' (Duchene 2004). Since that time, a growing chorus of industry outlets has
heralded the rise of the sustainable seafood market, with headlines in 2006 and 2007
such as 'Sustainability Changing Global Seafood Industry' and ' “Tipping point”
evident at Seafood Summit as consumer demand for sustainability becomes main-
stream' (McGovern 2006, Sackton 2007). With its annual summit as the signature
event for sustainable seafood, the Alliance is the engine driving this sea change.
7.2
Building the Seafood Choices Movement
In a [sustainable seafood] movement that is little noticed, largely unorganized but
winning converts among national chains and independent operators, the purchasing
habits and vendor relationships of foodservice operators are undergoing sweeping
changes and serious scrutiny in the name of environmental correctness
(Milford Prewitt (Prewitt 2000)).
As documented in the other chapters, influencing the marketplace and consumer
choices for seafood has become a cornerstone of conservation strategy across a
spectrum of ocean conservation issues. Furthermore, a growing constituency of
businesses, industry leaders and concerned citizens - from seafood suppliers and
retailers to consumers and chefs - now want to ensure that the choices they make
are beneficial not only to their own health and well-being, but also to the health and
well-being of the environment. Actions driven by larger social or moral motiva-
tions are neither new, nor they are unique to ocean conservation or the environment.
Nevertheless, those early successes in shifting purchasing behaviour in the market-
place - from consumer boycotts of Icelandic fish products (to protest about that
country's commercial whaling activities) to the 'Dolphin-Safe' tuna campaigns
(designed to pressure seine-netters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean to catch yellowfin
tuna without harming or killing dolphins) - served as precursors to the Seafood
Choices Movement. The primary difference was that these campaigns focused on
protecting marine mammals, for example, whales and dolphins, as opposed to the
species that were the target of the fisheries.
7.2.1 The early days of the movement
The Seafood Choices Movement, as it exists today, grew out of the groundbreaking
Give Swordfish A Break (GSAB) campaign, a joint effort of SeaWeb and the
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) between 1998 and 2000 in the US
(Box 7.1). GSAB provided a foundation for the Seafood Choices Movement in two
important ways. First, the campaign successfully conditioned the policy and media
climates to be receptive to an ocean conservation message. GSAB was the first
campaign that showcased the existence of a consuming public that identified with
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