Sanford Fishery

Today we interacted with professionals from Sanford Fishery, one of the leading sustainable fisheries in the world. The General Manager was very informative and led us through the processes and challenges they face to produce high quality, highly sustainable, and high-profit business model that feeds people all across the world. I thought it was interesting to listen to him discuss his challenges to integrate his plastic packaging into a circular cycle that can be reused and recycled. It seemed like better recycling infrastructures needed to be implemented, and more post-consumer responsibility would have to be implemented to significantly limit packaging waste. The fisheries industry is highly competitive and complex, and it was extremely fascinating to hear about the many different scopes you can try to achieve sustainability. While their business model seemed very sustainable, they tried to playoff bottom trawling that is highly destructive. They mentioned that “only” 2% of their fishing areas use bottom trawling techniques. While this seems small, when you think of the immensely large region they fish 2% is in fact, a lot. Overall, I learned a lot about how a successful fishery works and is maybe something the U.S. could adopt.