DURBAN - Two Oceans Aquarium and WWF South Africa will be rolling out the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative in October.
October is dedicated to marine awareness and this initiative is being introduced to ensure that consumers make the right choices.
The initiative is aimed at consumers to drive change by choosing sustainable seafood when shopping in for home or when visiting a seafood restaurant.
SASSI has introduced a colour coded seafood guide to help the consumer make the right choices. The guide uses a traffic light system which tells the consumer what they can eat:
1. A clear conscience (green)
2. Should think twice (orange)
3. Avoid altogether (red)
People can access the guide through the SASSI app or by typing in the name of the seafood and a message to FISHMS to 079 499 8795 to help you make an informed choice.
Pavitray Pillay, SASSI manager, said that consumers have the power to make a real change by consciously making greener choices when it comes to the fish that they eat.
Two Oceans Aquarium Communications and Sustainability Manager, Helen Lockhart said that at the aquarium they reviewed their sustainability strategy and overfishing is one of the key threats to ocean which we have to focus on.
Lockhart said that teaming with SASSI for Marine Month provides a great opportunity to take the sustainable seafood message beyond the aquarium and to focus on informing and empowering consumers during this month.
During October the aquarium and SASSI will have activations on different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and instagram.
WWF-SASSI has also compiled and maintains a database of seafood species and each species having their own specific sustainability status.
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