Sustainable seafood
PCC's positions
PCC remains committed to sustainable seafood and is the first retailer to become a full partner in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. As part of the educational effort, PCC plans to distribute thousands of the Seafood Watch guides to customers and will offer new seafood cooking classes this fall.
PCC's seafood supplier — on Monterey Bay Aquarium's recommendation — is Seattle-based Ocean Beauty. PCC's Director of merchandising, Paul Schmidt, says Ocean Beauty's extensive tracking program allows PCC to do the best possible job of telling customers where its seafood comes from. "Approximately 50 percent of Ocean Beauty's product is from its own fleet," he says, with the remainder coming from many ocean-friendly small fishermen.
"Toward the goal of implementing complete chain-of-custody documentation, Ocean Beauty is already documenting where its fish were caught and how they were fished," says Schmidt. "They give that information to us on the product and on the invoice. We've set up individual codes for the species based on the fishing method by which it was caught."
PCC has endorsed numerous marine-friendly policies and has recently joined chefs, restaurateurs and others in writing comments for Washington's governor to consider with the U.S. Commission on Oceans Policy. The commission is reviewing comments received from the governors and interested stakeholders.
In addition to choosing sustainable seafood, there are many other things you can do in your daily life to help heal and restore the oceans. To learn more, visit Ten Things You Can Do to Help the Ocean.