Where does our seafood come from?

The waiter hazarded a guess at Alaska, then BC, before helpfully offering to ask the chef. It’s not something I would usually think to ask but I’ve been immersed in preparing for the upcoming 9th Annual Seafood Summit and the question of where the fish on my plate comes from and how it got there is foremost in my mind!
WWF is proud to be a sponsor of this year’s summit that takes place in Vancouver. The Pacific Region office has been buzzing the last couple of days as we play host to WWFer’s from around the world. The Summit offers the chance not only to hear from international scientists, environmentalists, certifiers, seafood purchasers and chefs, but also for WWF colleagues to catch up with their international counterparts on their latest work.

(c) Jo Anne Walton/WWF-Canada
I snapped this photo Saturday morning when I arrived to find the team from Germany, China and England surrounded by snacks in our boardroom – hard at work since the early hours. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to hear from WWF-China’s marine program officer Songlin Wang on the conservation challenges facing a country that is the world’s largest seafood exporter, its largest seafood consumer per capita and has 14.5-million fishermen.
Stay tuned for daily updates from Stacey McCarthy from our Atlantic office and I as we cover the Summit that starts Monday. Some WWF highlights include a panel moderated by our Pacific VP Darcy Dobell exploring the opportunities for linking planning for healthy oceans to sustainable seafood markets. And a panel discussion [PDF] led by WWF International’s Global Seafood Leader, Mark Powell, examining where the responsibility lies to build sustainable seafood markets in developing countries where much of our global seafood comes from.
Follow me on Twitter for the latest: @JoAnneWaltonWWF (the hashtag for the event is #seafoodsummit).