NAPA, California -- Though boosting seafood consumption isn’t explicitly part of the environmental organization’s charter, Seafood Watch believes that it’s a goal worth pursuing that will ultimately benefit conservation.

Speaking during a panel discussion Sept. 24 at the Napa Seafood Summit, Shawn Cronin, Seafood Watch’s business program manager had a simple message for a conference room full of industry executives.

“We want to support increased consumption of seafood. We think as a protein it’s one of the most environmentally responsible options out there,” he said. “We want to support the increased consumption of aquaculture, very much so.”

Seafood Watch, an initiative of California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, acts as an information provider about environmental sustainablity issues for consumers. Every year it makes about 1,500 recommendations across the 50 states as to when and which of the 350 species it monitors are best to buy.

There process, Cronin said, is ultimately driven by science but is about “showing consumers there are some amazing options to choose when thinking about environmental impacts and trying to create a market incentive for those products.”

When asked by a conference attendee if the group ever gets “pushback” on its recommendations, Cronin laughed [...]