IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v4y2012i9p2038-2050d19815.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Refocusing Seafood Sustainability as a Journey Using the Law of the Minimum

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Tlusty

    (John H. Prescott Marine Laboratory, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Heather Tausig

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Tania Taranovski

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Meghan Jeans

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Matt Thompson

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Michelle Cho

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Michael Eppling

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Jason J. Clermont

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Jennifer Goldstein

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

  • Elizabeth Fitzsimons

    (Sustainable Seafood Program, New England Aquarium, Boston, MA 02110, USA)

Abstract

Globally, seafood is an important protein source because it is a nutritious food source produced with relative efficiency compared to other proteins. Because of problems related to overfishing and deleterious environmental impacts, over the last decade, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have increased their focus on seafood sustainability while businesses have incorporated this issue into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Sustainability is a concept that can be addressed in terms of scale of issues considered (narrow vs . broad) as well as the scope of how they are measured (undemanding or demanding). Currently, the message of seafood sustainability is becoming complicated in that the journey toward sustainability is being referred to as having achieved a state of sustainability. In addition, companies making a “sustainable” declaration are often at different points in the “scale/scope” arena. As a result, buyers, retailers and consumers have difficulty differentiating between these products. Furthermore, they often assume that a “sustainable” product has no further need for improvement, when in fact this is rarely the case. This change in reference from a continual process (a journey) to a static point (it is sustainable) limits further advances in seafood sustainability and the drive for continual improvement. Herein, the “Law of the Minimum”, growth toward an end goal will occur until one factor becomes limiting, is adopted as an analogy for sustainability. By refocusing the sustainability discussion on a progressive series of challenges to be met, the discussion will return to the journey as the central point. Doing so will help refresh the dialogue around seafood, and to create new opportunities for improvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Tlusty & Heather Tausig & Tania Taranovski & Meghan Jeans & Matt Thompson & Michelle Cho & Michael Eppling & Jason J. Clermont & Jennifer Goldstein & Elizabeth Fitzsimons, 2012. "Refocusing Seafood Sustainability as a Journey Using the Law of the Minimum," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(9), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:4:y:2012:i:9:p:2038-2050:d:19815
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/9/2038/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/9/2038/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    2. Jacquet, Jennifer L. & Pauly, Daniel, 2007. "The rise of seafood awareness campaigns in an era of collapsing fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 308-313, May.
    3. Mary Ann Curran, 2009. "Wrapping Our Brains around Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-9, March.
    4. Tom Kuhlman & John Farrington, 2010. "What is Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(11), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Hueting, Roefie & Reijnders, Lucas, 2004. "Broad sustainability contra sustainability: the proper construction of sustainability indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3-4), pages 249-260, October.
    6. Daniel Pauly & Villy Christensen & Sylvie Guénette & Tony J. Pitcher & U. Rashid Sumaila & Carl J. Walters & R. Watson & Dirk Zeller, 2002. "Towards sustainability in world fisheries," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 689-695, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wesley Malcorps & Richard W. Newton & Silvia Maiolo & Mahmoud Eltholth & Changbo Zhu & Wenbo Zhang & Saihong Li & Michael Tlusty & David C. Little, 2021. "Global Seafood Trade: Insights in Sustainability Messaging and Claims of the Major Producing and Consuming Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ozgur Isil & Michael T. Hernke, 2017. "The Triple Bottom Line: A Critical Review from a Transdisciplinary Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1235-1251, December.
    2. Daan Francois Toerien, 2022. "Linking Entrepreneurial Activities and Community Prosperity/Poverty in United States Counties: Use of the Enterprise Dependency Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Dana Miller & Stefano Mariani, 2013. "Irish fish, Irish people: roles and responsibilities for an emptying ocean," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 529-546, April.
    4. Juliana Segura-Salazar & Luís Marcelo Tavares, 2018. "Sustainability in the Minerals Industry: Seeking a Consensus on Its Meaning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-38, May.
    5. Samar Ben Romdhane & Sang Lee & Salem Al-Shaebi, 2023. "Enhancing Sustainability Communication among UAE’s Higher Education Students: The Relationship between Sustainable Living Knowledge and Intention to Live Sustainably," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Monika Spychalska-Wojtkiewicz, 2020. "The Relation between Sustainable Development Trends and Customer Value Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-18, July.
    7. Katharine Legun & Marion Sautier, 2018. "Sustainability programs and deliberative processes: assembling sustainable winegrowing in New Zealand," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(4), pages 837-852, December.
    8. Robert L. Oxley & Larry W. Mays & Alan Murray, 2016. "Optimization Model for the Sustainable Water Resource Management of River Basins," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(9), pages 3247-3264, July.
    9. Monika Klein & Monika Spychalska-Wojtkiewicz, 2022. "The Role of Design Management in Creation of Sustainable Business Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Burgherr, Peter & Hirschberg, Stefan, 2014. "Comparative risk assessment of severe accidents in the energy sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(S1), pages 45-56.
    11. Robert J. DiNapoli & Carl P. Lipo & Terry L. Hunt, 2021. "Triumph of the Commons: Sustainable Community Practices on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-23, November.
    12. Xiaofang Wu & Luoping Zhang & Huan Feng, 2019. "Green Strategic Planning Approach for International Shipping Activities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    13. Hallstein, Eric & Villas-Boas, Sofia B., 2013. "Can household consumers save the wild fish? Lessons from a sustainable seafood advisory," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 52-71.
    14. Buytaert, V. & Muys, B. & Devriendt, N. & Pelkmans, L. & Kretzschmar, J.G. & Samson, R., 2011. "Towards integrated sustainability assessment for energetic use of biomass: A state of the art evaluation of assessment tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3918-3933.
    15. Van Passel, Steven & Nevens, Frank & Mathijs, Erik & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2007. "Measuring farm sustainability and explaining differences in sustainable efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 149-161, April.
    16. Sergey Kinzhikeyev & József Rohács & Dániel Rohács & Anita Boros, 2020. "Sustainable Disaster Response Management Related to Large Technical Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-25, December.
    17. Daniel El Chami & André Daccache & Maroun El Moujabber, 2020. "How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    18. Ferng, Jiun-Jiun, 2014. "Nested open systems: An important concept for applying ecological footprint analysis to sustainable development assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 105-111.
    19. Philipp Haessler, 2020. "Strategic Decisions between Short-Term Profit and Sustainability," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-31, September.
    20. Binder, C.R. & Schmid, A. & Steinberger, J.K., 2012. "Sustainability solution space of the Swiss milk value added chain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 210-220.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:4:y:2012:i:9:p:2038-2050:d:19815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.