Matt Thompson is a senior aquaculture specialist with the Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Programs (SSP), and he is going to be blogging from the Seafood Summit in Hong Kong. The Seafood Summit brings all those concerned with sustainable seafood together in a conference to identify challenges and look for solutions. 



I imagine some of you are asking: an aqua-what? Sustainable seafood? And what’s a Seafood Summit anyway?

Here’s a very quick introduction: For over 10 years the Aquarium has been a leader in a movement to reduce the environmental footprint of the seafood we eat. We’ve partnered with some of the largest seafood buyers in the U.S. – namely, Ahold USA (the parent company of Stop and Shop), Darden Restaurants (the parent company of Red Lobster and Olive Garden), Gorton’s of Gloucester (of fish stick fame), and Sea Port Products (a West Coast based seafood importer/distributor) to advise them on how they can use their influence to improve their sources of seafood. We also offer consumers advice on which seafood is a great choice for the environment; you can see this list here.

Matt arrives in Hong Kong

As for me, my role at the Aquarium is to study the environmental impact of farming seafood, like fish, shrimp and mussels—which is called aquaculture. For the past five years I’ve traveled the world, looking at fish and shrimp farms and showing farmers different ways to reduce their environmental impact.

The Seafood Summit brings all those concerned with sustainable seafood together in a conference to identify challenges and look for solutions. I’ll be reporting on the results of these discussions as the conference progresses.