BARCELONA, June 19, 2018—Open Blue today announced that they have been honored by SeaWeb as a 2018 Seafood Champion in the Vision category, which recognizes individuals or organizations that establish a clear and compelling vision of the future that inspires positive change for sustainable seafood in technology, policy, products or markets, or conservation tools.
Open Blue's award was announced on June 19 in front of a global audience of seafood sustainability professionals at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Barcelona, Spain. The ceremony also honored three other winners and 17 finalists.
“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of the entire Open Blue team. Open Blue has made a lot of progress over the past several years as we work toward realizing our vision, which is to feed current and future generations in harmony with the ocean, and we will continue to work on being the leader and role model for sustainable aquaculture.” Said Chris Perry, President Open Blue.
Open Blue earned the award for its decade-long effort to revolutionize the mariculture industry by moving it into the open ocean, far away from sensitive near shore ecosystems. Open Blue’s native Cobia fish are cultivated twelve kilometers off the coast of Panama in proprietary SeaStations fully submerged at depths of up to 100 feet. Vertically integrated from egg to plate, Open Blue Cobia became the world’s first ASC certified Cobia operation in January 2018.
"Progressive, forward facing and daring," is how New Zealand fisherman and Awards Judge Karl Warr described Open Blue. "Open Blue has had the vision to grow fish from the outset in a way that addresses all of the environmental considerations. They have not grown as quickly as they might have if they disregarded these issues, but they had the vision to do it for the sake of open ocean aquaculture."
Three other Seafood Champions were honored, including:
- Guy Dean, Vice President of Albion Farms and Fisheries, who won the Seafood Champion Award for Leadership for his 30 years of service to sustainable seafood;
- Patima Tungpuchayakul, founder of the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation, who won the Seafood Champion Award for Advocacy for her work to improve the lives of migrant workers; and
- Pelagic Data Systems, winners in the Innovation category, for creation of a groundbreaking solar powered vessel tracking system that is suitable for boats of all sizes.
For more information on the awards, go to www.seafoodchampions.org.