Seafood Champion Awards
 First presented in 2006, the Seafood Champion Awards annually recognize individuals and companies for outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood. Seafood Choices established the award to honor those in the seafood industry whose past and/or present contributions demonstrate a commitment to innovation that leads to change.
Now accepting nominations
for the 2009 awards!
- To learn more about the process or to submit a nomination, please see the nomination guidelines
- Read about more of the industry leaders working to improve
seafood sustainability on our profiles pages.
2008 Seafood Champions
The 2008 award recipients were announced during the Boston Seafood Show on February 24. Seafood Choices showcased sustainability and celebrated this year's Seafood Champions in front of a packed audience at its cocktail reception. The 2008 Champions represent leadership on both sides of the Atlantic and, for the first time, recognize achievements in the fishing and aquaculture sectors.
Contact us to learn more about these individuals/companies and request interviews or photos, or click here to view the Champions' profiles.
The recipients of this year’s Seafood Champions Awards represent individuals and organizations that play a leading role in the movement towards sustainable seafood. Winners, selected from among the ten finalists announced in January at the Seafood Summit in Barcelona, are having a positive impact on seafood industry, and display leadership, dedication and passion for sustainability in the increasingly complicated global seafood arena.
- Association du Grand Littoral Atlantique (AGLIA) Bay of Biscay, France -
AGLIA has worked together for several years with the French Comité National des Pêches Maritimes et des Elevages Marins to promote selective devices and to organize large scale trials at sea. The project has successfully engaged all the fishermen from the Bay of Biscay nephrops’ fishery, about 250 trawlers, and reduced the catch of undersize nephrops and other marine life.
- Mr. Mike Mitchell (Foodvest), United Kingdom -
Mike Mitchell is an expert in seafood traceability and sustainability with Foodvest with over 25 years of experience in the seafood industry. He helped establish Young’s as the number one provider of MSC products to the UK’s retail sector. Additionally, he bridges the science and fishing sectors through his work with the European Seafood Processors Association (AIPCE).
- The Plitt Company, Chicago, Illinois, USA -
Plitt was the first seafood wholesaler in Chicago to achieve Marine Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification and is committed to helping make MSC products more widely available. Currently, the company is working with the Ocean Conservancy to encourage customer involvement in improving Gulf of Mexico red snapper conservation.
- Chef Barton Seaver and Hook Restaurant, Washington, D.C., USA -
Executive chef Barton Seaver and his team at Hook Restaurant embody seafood sustainability for the restaurant industry. Hook is a 100 percent sustainable, fish-focused restaurant opened by Seaver in spring 2007. In that short time, Seaver and his staff at Hook have won a reputation for creative sustainability by embracing new, responsibly sourced fish species and by utilizing the restaurant as a forum for educating diners on sustainability.
- Sunburst Trout Co., Canton, North Carolina, USA -
Sunburst Trout has a constant eye on conservation and a theory of “waste not, want not.” Owner Sally Eason has created a company that uses every aspect of a trout and composts all waste. A waste product 20 years ago – the eggs – are now the most valuable product, being made into nationally acclaimed trout caviar. Regionally and nationally, the company is a strong voice for promoting economic and sustainable growth in aquaculture.
- Mr. Bart van Olphen (Fishes), The Netherlands -
Retail shop Fishes began when Mr. Bart van Olphen began selling fresh, sustainable seafood after witnessing many of the problems in the seafood industry at the Fish Auction of Scheveningen in the Netherlands. Fishes was the first continental European retail fish shop to obtain MSC Chain of Custody Certification. Van Olphen has since expanded to a wholesale company focused exclusively on MSC-certified fish, restaurants and a catering branch serving fish products with similar sustainability credentials, and operating retail branches in Holland, Germany and Belgium.
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