The Zanzibar Sustainable Seafood Guide
While we are serving seafood as part of our delicious meals on Chumbe Island, we also want to make sure that our ocean remains healthy. That is why Chumbe Island Coral Park (CHICOP) has created the Zanzibar Sustainable Seafood Guide to assist the Chumbe team, the tourism sector, and individuals in making better-informed decisions about their seafood choices.
Sustainable Seafood
The demand for seafood in Zanzibar is rising due to increased tourism and a growing population, but overfishing can be a danger for the marine environment. To find a balance that can sustain both marine life and the livelihoods of fishers as well as meet the demand, sustainable practices are necessary.
Fishing endangered species is of course unsustainable, but there are a number of other factors that also play a role. These include for example the fishing method, the fishing location, the size of the seafood, its age of maturity and eating local.
Chumbe’s seafood guide for Zanzibar
The CHICOP team started by introducing guidelines for its own seafood supply and has been using these for many years now. In order to raise awareness and promote better decision making among our partners in the tourism sector, as well as inform our guests, CHICOP shared its first sustainable seafood guide. This guide uses three categories (green, yellow, red) for easy guidance, and also includes some stories from fishers who share their experiences.
In 2023, the Chumbe Team embarked on a project to improve and update the existing seafood guide. As part of this, a survey of Zanzibar’s tourism sector was conducted to gain insight into the local seafood trade. CHICOP worked with partners in the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries to collect data and compile all the necessary information to produce a new, more scientifically based version of the guide. We are very pleased to announce that our new Sustainable Seafood Guide is now available.
Awareness and trainings
Training workshops with 35 seafood suppliers, ranging from local oyster collectors to international lobster traders, took place in June 2023.
Through this sustainable seafood project, CHICOP aims to shift consumer demand in Zanzibar towards a more sustainable seafood supply, thereby contributing to the protection of marine life’s diversity, health, and beauty.