Wholechain, Food Tank, Envisible, BioMar, Tilghman Island Seafood and the Virginia Seafood Products Board convened seafood industry leaders, retailers and NGO’s at the New England Aquarium

On Sunday, March 10th, seafood industry leaders dined at the top of the New England Aquarium’s Giant Ocean Water Tank. The evening’s organizers sourced every blue food ingredient on the menu with care for its journey from source to plate. Guests learned about each ingredient journey through Wholechain’s consumer transparency QR codes printed on the menu.

The suppliers for the evening’s dinner included Alaskan Leader (black cod), AKUA (kelp-based burgers), Superior Fresh (salmon and greens), OpenBlue (cobia), LAMAR S.A. (meagre), Combamar (grouper), Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods (blue swimming crab), and Tilghman Island Seafood (blue catfish).

Guests enjoyed appetizers featuring a variety of blue foods:

• Phyllo Wrapped Blue Cobia — sourced from OpenBlue, fed with Blue IMPACT feed from BioMar, BAP and ASC Certified

• Salmon Tartare Cones with Organic Greens — sourced from Superior Fresh, BAP Certified

• Wild Alaskan Black Cod with Hikari Miso Marinade — sourced from Alaskan Leader, MSC Certified

• Blackened Yucatecan Grouper Mini Taco — sourced from an artisanal Yucatecan processor, Combamar

• Kelp Sliders — sourced from AKUA with kelp harvested off the coast of New England

Mark Kaplan, co-founder of Wholechain, a supply chain traceability company and a cohort member of the UN Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition Startup Network introduced the evening’s themes and suppliers. T he UNGC Ocean Stewardship Coalition Solutions Network was relaunched in September 2021 to accelerate solutions to the UN Global Compact Tipping Points for Healthy and Productive Oceans. The Network now includes technologies that address solutions to the intersection between Oceans, Food and Nature.

ESG case studies: traceability used to advance ocean health and economic opportunity for small scale fisheries

As one of the UNGC’s key tipping points, traceability underlies the Network’s goals and is a central component of the UNGC dinner series. Jayson Berryhill of Wholechain, a blockchain-based traceability company and one of the evening’s sponsors, discussed traceability as an imperative for regulatory compliance, supply chain integrity, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

Blake Stok of Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods (COSFF), and Brad Spear of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), introduced the dinner’s first course, a Blue Swimming Crab Salad, highlighting jumbo lump crab sourced by COSFF in the Philippines and traced on Wholechain using SPF’s Fishery IDs. The traceability initiative aiming to access more quality data on crab sources — and provide visibility to consumers — demonstrates how seafood brands are advancing consumer trust, ocean health, ingredient and food system integrity through traceability.

Throughout the dinner, speakers also highlighted the impact of supply chain transparency on the sustainability and the economic integrity of small scale suppliers.

Steve Hart (Global Seafood Alliance) and Citlali Gomez Lepe (Neminatura) introduced the Yucatecan grouper as a case study for the Global Seafood Alliance, Envisible and the Environmental Defense Fund’s certification sponsorship program, which is enabling artisanal processors from the State of Yucatan, Mexico to earn the Seafood Processing Standard certification. The program — already implemented in South Africa and Oman — is designed to enable more equitable market access for small scale producers and processors exercising responsible practices through access to certification, which can be costly and inaccessible to small scale businesses.

The organizations are leveraging Wholechain’s traceability technology to trace ingredients that form part of the program as a measure of substantiating their compliance with the certifications. The certification gives processors, like Combamar S.A. in the Yucatan, credibility in international markets, supporting the economic sustainability of the company and of its fleet of artisanal fishers. Likewise, it provides the financial backing for these suppliers to continue — and further develop — their sustainable practices.

The aquaculture showcase: sustainably sourced ingredients from feed, to farm, to plate

Responsibly sourced aquaculture and aquaculture feed were key themes of the dinner. The OpenBlue cobia, served as an appetizer, and LAMAR S.A. meagre, featured in the 3rd course, highlighted BioMar’s Blue IMPACT feed ingredients — read more about BioMar’s Impact Parameters here. Superior Fresh highlighted its farmed salmon and organic greens, farmed together in its innovative (and mesmerizing) hydroponic facility using LED farming technology.

Introducing the Blue Catfish to market — a species endangering the biodiversity of the Chesapeake Bay

The blue catfish served as the 3rd and final course of the meal brought a story of market innovation in the service of biodiversity conservation. Tilghman Island Seafood and the states of Virginia and Maryland are working together to eradicate the invasive species that is threatening the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, which rivals the Amazon rainforest in terms of biodiversity. Finding a retail market for this catfish — which distinguishes itself from other catfish species by its white, flaky meat similar to rockfish — will provide a strong incentive for fishers in the bay to harvest (and doing so, eradicate) the fish.

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible:

Hosts: Food Tank, Envisible, BioMar, Tilghman Island Seafood and the Virginia Seafood Products Board.

Suppliers: Alaskan Leader (black cod), AKUA (kelp-based burgers), Superior Fresh (salmon and greens), OpenBlue (cobia), LAMAR S.A. (meagre), Combamar (grouper), Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods (blue swimming crab), and Tilghman Island Seafood (blue catfish).

Venue: The New England Aquarium

Catering team: Sodexo Live!

This working dinner forms part of a series that launched in June 2022 as an official side-event to the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, and was followed by a dinner during UNGA 77 in New York City. In 2023, Wholechain co-hosted the Better Food Future working dinner at the Barcelona Aquarium during Seafood Expo Global, and the first Night at the New England Aquarium in during Seafood Expo North America. The next dinner in the series will take place during Seafood Expo Global 2024. Outcomes have included partnerships between buyers, feed companies and seafood and aquaculture producers and commitments to implement traceability in global supply chains.