John Dory's is raising awareness about sustainable seafood!

South Africa is located at the tip of Africa and is fortunate to have more than 3000km of coastline. It straddles both the cold Atlantic Ocean and the warm Indian Ocean, which makes for one of the most diverse and productive marine environments in the world! Our oceans are a source of great joy and benefit, providing us with tremendous and often unseen economic, social and cultural benefits; they act as a vast highway for commerce, provide a place for recreationand, importantly, they supply food or income for 2.6 billion people worldwide.

Sadly, many South Africans have lost their connection with the oceans, viewing them only as food factories to fill their stomachs. Luckily, the John Dory’s Fish and Grill Restaurant Franchise Group has taken up the challenge to change the way their customers view seafood. John Dory’s joined the WWF SASSI Retailer Participation Scheme in 2009 and, with the help of the WWF SASSI team, are actively scrutinising their seafood procurement practices so that they can provide their customers with the most sustainable seafood options available. Philippa Charlesworth, Brand Manager for John Dory’s, says, “In order to ensure the sustainability of our own business, we recognised the need for seafood to remain sustainable and hence saw the importance of getting on board [with SASSI], which we did”.

In November 2011, John Dory’s hosted an awareness dinner at Monte Casino, Gauteng. Despite being inland, Gauteng is the province where the most seafood is consumed, according to SASSI’s research, but there is very limited awareness around the sustainability of more popular seafood choices. The purpose of this event was to bring together key individuals and members of the media to learn about WWF SASSI and empower them to spread SASSI’s message of sustainability, whilst raising awareness around the challenges that our oceans face. The evening involved a night of culinary excellence provided by Chef David Higgs, where guests ate sustainably, heard fromSASSI, and were encouraged to drive positive change through the seafood industry by making informed seafood choices and supporting sustainable practices.

WWF SASSI applauds the great work John Dory’s has done on their seafood sustainability journey! Special thanks also go to Two Oceans Wines, an educational partner of SASSI’s, for sponsoring the wine for the evening.

Change begins with small steps in the right direction – here’s to an amazing 2012!