Adriana Sánchez is the chief sustainability officer of Sea Delight, based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. and president of the company’s charitable arm, the Sea Delight Ocean Fund. Under Sánchez’s direction, Sea Delight has been helped to develop and support fishery improvement projects (FIP) and better fishing practices initiatives around the world and expanded its efforts to help the fisheries it sources from obtain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. In addition, Sánchez works to expand Sea Delight’s corporate sustainability program through efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, optimize water and energy use and craft a waste management plan for packaging and seafood waste.
SeafoodSource: You’ve studied overfishing and lead Sea Delight’s sustainability initiative. What was the impetus for your interest and why is sustainability so important to you?
Sanchez: My initial interest was driven by the needs of our company to continue to grow and to meet our customers’ needs, but after six years of working at Sea Delight, seafood sustainability has become incredibly important to me. It not only makes good sense as a business practice, but I now have a better understanding of the impact of poor fishing practices on the environment. We cannot overlook the negative consequences that overfishing and fish stock collapses would have on the industry as a whole, nor can we overlook how these affect entire fishing communities that depend on these fisheries for their livelihoods.
SeafoodSource: Can you describe the challenges of combining economics with actual practice of sustainability, in the context of your business?
Sanchez: Achieving seafood sustainability is very costly. Most people don’t realize how involved it is to develop programs to help fisheries become better managed, and few companies have been able to successfully pass the costs associated with sustainability throughout their supply chain and also to their customers.
We have relied heavily on the fact that addressing the sustainability of our products allows for greater market access which, in return, increases our sales. We may not be able to charge a premium for our products at this time, but by focusing on sustainability and making sure we maintain the superior quality of our products, we are able to continue to grow.
By following this model, in the last few years, Sea Delight has been able to donate one cent per pound of seafood we import to the U.S.A. and Canada to the Sea Delight Ocean Fund, a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to support global fishery improvement projects.
SeafoodSource: You’re involved with a fisheries improvement project in Vietnam. What are you doing there and why is it important? What kind of financial investment did this FIP require from your company?
Sanchez: In Vietnam, we worked on identifying offloading site and mapping these in the three main Provinces of Kanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Binh Dinh to improve traceability documentation, onboard logbook coverage and accuracy, onboard observer data coverage and bycatch mitigation and research. We have also focused on onboard logbook distribution and training, and voluntary circle hook trials in Phu Yen.
It has been important to continue education on the use of circle hook and proper technique for turtle handle and release, as well as to support the development of data collection from onboard observer trips. All this work is important for our company as tuna is one of our core items, and we want to make sure that the fishery has a healthy stock and is well-managed so we can continue sourcing from it in the future. Moreover, we need to make sure that our products are sourced according to our company’s sustainable seafood policy and we can only do that by being engaged in this FIP.
At this time, our financial investment is twofold. A membership fee is provided to the NGO leading this project to support activities in the water. We also work with a local person to coordinate the activities that Sea Delight is responsible for per the memorandum-of-understanding we signed when we joined the FIP, so we cover his expenses and to continue the commitments our company made to help improve the fishery.
SeafoodSource: To what extent are women playing an increasingly large role in the seafood industry? How has the gender balance changed over the last five to 10 years?
Sanchez: I think women’s role in the industry has shifted from being mainly administrative to finding opportunities in purchasing, sales and operations. With time, women have found opportunities for professional growth which has allowed them to fill executive and management positions and in a way, pave the way for other women to find opportunities in these types of leadership roles.
I’ve seen a generational shift with younger women joining the industry and I think there’s been a change in the gender balance in the last five to 10 years as more women are attending meetings, workshops and the seafood shows. But I don’t think it is enough. I still go to meetings in which I am the only woman, or in which there are visibly more men than women.
The Sea Delight Ocean Fund online series consists of interview posts with women in the industry and has been a great opportunity for me to learn about what other women are working on and what their views about seafood sustainability are. The goal of these series is not just to focus on women in leadership positions – women play important roles across the industry which are often overlooked because they do not fit the general “executive” or “management” role. Our goal is to include interviews of women fishers and administrators, the backbone of our industry in many ways. Our social media reach is very limited, so I can’t say with certainty that these stories are getting the attention they deserve. However, we have been very fortunate to have SeafoodSource and other media outlets pick some of our releases and inform their readers about the work we are doing through this series.
SeafoodSource: If there were one thing you could change about the seafood industry as a whole, especially as it relates to your ability to run a successful business, what would it be?
Sanchez: Increasing transparency and having an industry-wide standard for quality, product specifications and sustainability so that we can even the playing field. This is a penny game. Small changes in specifications or other requirements completely change the pricing structure. But this isn't translated or communicated well to the customer. So inferior products end up getting a free ride from the efforts of higher quality, more sustainably sourced products.
SeafoodSource: Given the opportunity to address a room filled with seafood industry leaders such as yourself, what is the one nugget of wisdom you would offer them as your closing remark?
Sanchez: When it comes to seafood sustainability, we all need to work together for the common good of our oceans, as it benefits us all. The future of our industry depends on the responsible management of the fisheries from which we source our products. Sustainability is not cost-effective if we are all competing against one another and wasting valuable resources that could be pulled together to address negative issues affecting us all. There is no room for competitiveness in achieving seafood sustainability and promoting the health of our oceans.
