TJ Tate, the sustainability director for Gulf Wild, was presented with the Seafood Champion Award for Vision. She was recognized for her pioneering work that included video monitoring on commercial fishing boats, creating collaboration between scientists and fishermen, and marketing of bycatch to avoid waste. Photo: Gulf Wld
by SeaWeb Staff and Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
As hundreds of participants at the recent SeaWeb Seafood Summit gathered for the opening reception at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, one Gulf of Mexico award winner joined five others and ten finalists as they waited to be honored for the work in promoting seafood sustainability during the previous year.
TJ Tate, the sustainability director for Gulf Wild, was presented with the Seafood Champion Award for Vision. She was recognized for her pioneering work that included video monitoring on commercial fishing boats, creating collaboration between scientists and fishermen, and marketing of bycatch to avoid waste.
TJ Tate recently left her position at Gulf Wild to become Director of Seafood Sustainability at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. She is currently developing a sustainable seafood program for the organization. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
The SeaWeb Seafood Summit hosted the Seafood Champion Awards Ceremony to recognize individuals and companies for outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood and ocean health. Winners were chosen from a group of sixteen finalists that represent the best of the best in sustainability from around the world.
First presented in 2006, the Seafood Champion Awards annually recognize individuals and companies for outstanding leadership in promoting environmentally responsible seafood. This year, for the first time, the Seafood Champion Awards honored excellence in four targeted categories: Leadership, Innovation, Vision and Advocacy.
Finalist hailed from five continents, and included Argentina, Canada, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of the Maldives, Panama and the United States. They were selected from more than100 nominations from the fishing, aquaculture, seafood supply and distribution, retail, restaurant and food service sectors, as well as conservation and social non-profit organizations, academia and the media.
Gulf Wild was created by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, a non-profit organization of conservation-minded fishermen, to promote seafood sustainability and fishery conservation throughout the Gulf of Mexico. It was created by forward thinking commercial fishermen in the Gulf in response to declining sales from seafood fraud and the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.
After Deepwater Horizon, Tate worked with red snapper fishermen to pioneer an innovative traceability program tracking fish back to the boat and the area they were caught. Gulf Wild initiated one of the first video monitoring camera programs in the Gulf, established strict standards on bycatch and discarding, and helped design a hybrid research project combining the knowledge of commercial fishermen with the expertise of scientists.
“TJ has been a leader in seafood sustainability for the Gulf of Mexico,” said Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) Founding member Buddy Guindon, the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Shareholders’ Alliance and Gulf Wild’s treasurer. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“TJ has been a leader in seafood sustainability for the Gulf of Mexico,” said Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) Founding member Buddy Guindon, the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Shareholders’ Alliance and Gulf Wild’s treasurer. “Her leadership has set a goal that others strive to reach. Her hard work and dedication has earned this award, and both the Shareholders Alliance and Gulf Wild members are proud of her outstanding efforts.”
“This is a great honor,” said Tate about the award. “ Often working as a small non-profit, we get overlooked for the tremendous strides we make on a daily basis to not only improve our fishery but to positively impact the lives of our commercial fishermen. Through my recognition as a finalist, hundreds of hardworking US commercial fishermen are the real winners and champions of change.”
The Gulf Wild brand has become synonymous with quality, better management and sustainability, according to Jim Gossen, GSI board member and chairman of Sysco Louisiana Seafood. He sees there will always be a demand for Gulf seafood if it is the best and remain sustainable, that’s the only direction that makes sense for our fisheries.
“TJ’s vision and work with the Gulf Wild has proven their direction is the right one,” said the major buyer of Gulf Wild products. “Our consumers trust this brand and demand keeps growing for their products. I envision more of our fisheries taking her lead in creating a branded and trusted source for buying Gulf seafood.
Tate recently left her position at Gulf Wild to become Director of Seafood Sustainability at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. She is currently developing a sustainable seafood program for the organization.
Other Award Winners:
- The first-ever Grand Champion Award was presented to Bill DiMento, Corporate Director of Sustainability at High Liner Foods, Inc. for his work that stretched across all four categories
- Seafood Champion Award for Leadership went to Andrew Jackson of theInternational Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organization for work with stakeholders to create a uniform standard and encouraging responsible production of fishmeal and fish oil, often used as feed in aquaculture.
- Seafood Champion Award for Innovation was awarded to Anova Food, LLC: Fishing & Living Initiative, for advancing sustainable fisheries by incorporating community development and the wellbeing of fishers in their work to achieve environmental goals.
- The Seafood Champion Award for Advocacy was shared between two winners.
- Ayumu Katano, Japanese fisheries expert, author and educator, has focused on how sustainability stands out in Japan, especially his efforts to explain sustainability and fisheries in terms that resonate within the Japanese culture.
- The Environmental Justice Foundation’s Oceans Campaign has used community-based surveillance and easy to use technology in places like West Africa in their work to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated or ‘pirate’ fishing.
“These Seafood Champions are looking beyond the status quo in best practices and responsible sourcing, and are addressing seafood sustainability in the context of ecological, human rights, and community needs,” said Dawn M. Martin, president of SeaWeb. “That kind of drive, passion and creativity will pave the path to a healthy future for this economically and environmentally important resource and the rest of us who depend upon the ocean as part of our daily lives.”
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