SeaWeb unveils Seafood Champion Awards finalists

Organizers of the SeaWeb Seafood Summit have announced the finalists for the 2016 Seafood Champion Awards, which range from leading political figures to private industries to non-government organizations.

The announcement came at Seafood Expo Asia 2015 in Hong Kong, produced by Diversified Communications, the parent company of SeafoodSource and partner with SeaWeb in producing the annual Seafood Summit.

The awards, according to a SeaWeb statement, “recognize individuals and organizations for outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood.”

The awards are divided into four categories:

• Leadership, which recognizes entities or individuals “who display leadership by organizing and convening seafood stakeholders in an effort to impact and improve the sustainability of seafood or ocean health.”
• Innovation, which recognizes entities or individuals “who identify and apply new solutions that meet or exceed the highest standards or requirements to address ecological challenges, existing market needs, or barriers to sustainability.”
• Vision, which recognizes entities or individuals “who provide a clear, distinctive, and specific vision of the future that significantly advances the sustainable seafood community and may be related to technology, policy, products, markets or conservation tools”
• Advocacy, which recognizes entities or individuals “who positively promote sustainability or use the media to raise the profile of sustainable seafood, effectively work to strengthen public policy and resource allocation decisions, or influence public discourse and engages key stakeholders by publicly championing advances in sustainable seafood.”
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Four finalists were selected for each category, for a total of 16 finalists, all chosen by an independent panel of seafood sustainability experts from industry, nonprofit and academia who hailed from Europe, North America and Asia.

"This group of Seafood Champions finalists have been nominated for their creative and effective solutions to seafood sustainability issues that set an example for stakeholders across the globe," said Dawn Martin, President of SeaWeb. "These leaders are blazing new paths in sustainable seafood and SeaWeb is privileged to be in a position to shine a light on their inspiring work." 

Winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on the first day of the 12^th SeaWeb Seafood Summit, to be held 1 to 3 February 2016 in St. Julian's, Malta.

Click below to see the list of finalists: