Editor's Note: New Harmonies

Welcome to the premiere issue of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Marketing, a new online platform that seeks to catalyze innovative thinking and collaboration around the notion of applying ecosystem-based science and principles to the marketing of wild-caught seafood.

The first issue of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Marketing takes the form of a “symphony in four movements,” in which we trace the evolution of social and scientific movements related to seafood in both the marketplace and management arena. The symphony sweeps “listeners” (readers) through a rigorous three-phase conceptual development before alighting on a more visionary plane in the finale.

The first movement, “Sustainable Seafood,” is a classical sonata that channels the first wave of marketplace activism around seafood that began in the 1990s. Best represented by campaigns like the Marine Stewardship Council ecolabel and the Seafood Watch ratings guide, the sustainable seafood movement was the first large-scale effort to engage consumers and supply chain businesses as partners in fishery conservation, and its catchy melody has made a lasting mark on the public consciousness.

The second movement, “Local Seafood,” is a pastoral scherzo that conjures up the community-support fishery (CSF) programs, boat-to-fork dining, and other locally led efforts that have slowly integrated seafood into the local foods scene over the last decade or so. Though many of these initiatives are driven primarily by social and economic objectives, this movement finds they have much to offer as a template for ecosystem action as well, and suggests that new harmonies are possible.

The third movement, “Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management,” is a technically complex composition that captures the character of the paradigm shift from single-species fisheries management (SSFM) to ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) that is currently occurring in fisheries management.

Finally, our fourth and most provocative movement, “Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Marketing,” is an avant-garde rondo with contemporary twists. In this movement, we present the leitmotif that will guide all future issues of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Marketing: a call for a marketplace movement designed on the principles of EBFM and grounded in the work of the local seafood movement.

Ending on an unresolved note, this fourth movement will invite thinkers and actors from far and wide - fisheries scientists, ecologists, social scientists, economists, activists, consumers, fishermen, seafood processors, retails, and chefs — to pick up their instruments and join us in composing this visionary movement.

One way you can get involved is by contributing to future issues of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Marketing!

— Sarah Schumann, Editor