Oceana Seafood Specialities is joining the Reston, Virginia, U.S.A.-based National Fisheries Institute's (NFI) Crab Council.
The Los Angeles, California-based company imports and supplies a number of seafood products, including blue swimming crab.
Oceana CEO Jeffrey Martinez-Malo said that the choice to join the Crab Council, which works to improve crab fisheries worldwide, was an easy one.
Oceana takes “pride in curating a reliable network that delivers consistent, high-quality seafood,” he said, and the Crab Council’s work on crab FIPs supports those sustainability efforts.
“For over 16 years, the Crab Council has supported six active FIPs, funded high-level scientific research, and maintained a forward-looking approach to sustainability. We’re not dropping into crab communities to 'make things sustainable' and then leaving,” Crab Council Executive Director Ed Rhodes said of the council’s work. “Long-term engagement is critical—and companies like Oceana understand that."
Launched in 2009, the NFI Crab Council principally works to improve blue swimming crab fisheries by funding Fisheries Improvement Projects (FIPs) across India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its work on red crab fisheries in China has been recognized with an “A” rating from FisheryProgress.org, and its partners include major seafood companies like Bumble Bee, Handy, and Chicken of the Sea.
“A holistic, integrated growth strategy requires close collaboration with harvesters and manufacturers.” Martinez-Malo said.
“That includes knowing the full sustainability story,” he added. “In the crab world, that story runs through the NFI Crab Council – it’s not just beneficial, it’s essential.”
