By ‘walking the walk’ and leading by example we can increase consumer awareness and demand for sustainable seafood and accelerate market change toward shark-friendly alternatives.
The SAFE Sharks and Rays Sustainable Feed Working Group is poised to position AZA institutions as champions of sustainable seafood. We have an opportunity to place sharks and rays within the wider narrative on sustainable fisheries and to engage partners by taking collective action on sourcing policies in both animal feed and catering operations.
We are currently working with Aquarium Conservation Partnership and SAFE Shark and Ray partner organizations, along with seafood vendors and participants from the AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, to launch a pilot Business Commitment to “Feed Sustainable Seafood.” This commitment will help move our purchasing practices to only sustainably rated feed and/or alternatives for the animals in our care. In addition, we will be releasing a Communications Toolkit very soon to help participating institutions communicate this effort and survey findings to their audiences, in person and online.
How can I participate?
- Contact the SAFE team if you are interested in assessing your seafood purchased for animal feeds by emailing: windykent@safesharks.org or
soneil@mbayaq.org. - Follow along with our journey over the next 12 months. We will be onboarding additional organizations to participate in this Business Commitment upon completion of the pilot.
- Talk to your animal care teams about your current seafood purchases for the animals in your care.
- How are you storing and prepping your feed products to reduce waste?
- Are your animals eating a varied seafood diet to ensure their nutrition needs are being met, but also to maximize your options should one food source become less available or rated unsustainable?
- Use the FishChoice My Assessment Tool to evaluate the sustainability of the products you are currently purchasing.
- Talk to your seafood vendors to be sure the products you are currently purchasing are rated sustainable (green or yellow) by Seafood Watch.
55 partner organizations participated in our data collection and the results of our collective purchasing sustainability impacts were shared at the 2024 AZA Annual Conference. You can view these results below.