HALIFAX, CANADA – Sea Pact, an innovative alliance of seafood industry leaders, today announces the opening of their seventh annual project funding cycle with a new process commencing with an initial Request for Letters of Interest (LOIs).
Sea Pact is a group of leading North American seafood companies dedicated to driving stewardship and continuous improvement of social, economic, and environmental responsibility throughout the global seafood supply chain. Sea Pact members are driving impactful industry change through the formation of a successful model of pre-competitive collaboration, utilizing their collective strength and robust industry expertise. Working together, they are advancing the goal of sustainable and responsible fishery and aquaculture practices and providing the building blocks for a long term and productive seafood industry via financial support and partner contributions to projects that improve fishing and farming systems globally. Sea Pact added two new members- North Atlantic, Inc. and Euclid Fish Company in 2018 and now is comprised of ten leading seafood companies across North America, with added breadth and depth to support more collaborative initiatives. Sea Pact and its individual members continue to be recognized in SeaWeb’s annual Seafood Champion Awards as leading global sustainable seafood movement change-makers. “I can assuredly speak for everyone that’s engaged in Sea Pact that it’s a great privilege to be associated with this group of like-minded industry leaders which continues to build value by utilizing our resources and supply chain expertise, working together to jointly support projects and partnerships that are making a difference,” said Rob Johnson, Managing Director of Sea Pact.
Sea Pact is launching a revised Project Selection Process this year, commencing with an initial Request for Letters of Interest (LOI’s), to be followed by invitations to submit full project proposals. This will support an improved process with greater efficiencies leading to more targeted and relevant project outcomes. Sea Pact continues to aim to select projects in line with their mission and framed by twelve broad project categories outlined on the Projects page of the Sea Pact website. Additionally, Sea Pact priority focus areas for preferential consideration for project funding this year are in the areas of:
- Social Responsibility
- Aquaculture
- Fisheries Management
- Traceability
- Special species of interest: Squid
- Special regional area of interest: Great Lakes freshwater fisheries
To apply for project funding, Program Information and Letter of Interest Guidelines can be found on the Sea Pact website here:http://www.seapact.org/uploads/2/1/0/2/21024558/2018_sea_pact_project_funding_grants.pdf
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions regarding funding grants can be found here:http://www.seapact.org/uploads/2/1/0/2/21024558/2018_funding_grants_faq.pdf
Initial 1-2 page Letters of Interest are due by August 20, 2018. Selected organizations will be requested to submit a full project proposal by mid-September. Sea Pact aims to announce grant recipients in late 2018.
“We are excited once again to put a call out for innovative and impactful project proposals,” said Hamish Walker, Chief Operating Officer for Seattle Fish Company, and Chair of the Sea Pact Advisory Committee. “We are looking forward to a more targeted and efficient granting process with the initial receipt and review of Letters of Interest and the further submission of important and relevant full proposals. We continue our interest to have an ongoing relationship with our grantees to see how our grants are making a difference, and a strong alignment to our charter and assessment criteria will be essential for success.”
“To date, Sea Pact has funded 21 grants to 16 projects in 11 countries, with over $400,000 USD in direct support and over $1 million USD of additional funds generated across these projects,” states Rob Johnson. “Through our renewed Sea Pact project funding process, we are proactively working together to support pragmatic solutions-focused projects that will increase the supply of sustainable seafood and improve the health of ocean and freshwater ecosystems that we all rely upon.”
About Sea Pact:
Sea Pact is a partnership of ten like-minded, leading seafood distributors across North America: Albion Farms & Fisheries in Vancouver, Fortune Fish & Gourmet in Chicago, Ipswich Shellfish Group in Boston, Santa Monica Seafood in Los Angeles, Seacore Seafood in Toronto, Seattle Fish Co. in Denver, J.J. McDonnell in Baltimore, Stavis Seafood in Boston, North Atlantic Inc. from Portland, Maine and Euclid Fish Company from Cleveland. These companies are united for a sustainable future and are using their collective strength to lead by example and drive improvement of environmental, economic, and social responsibility throughout the global seafood supply chain. Sea Pact receives sustainability council from non-profit organizations Ocean Outcomes, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and FishWise, and is a project under New Venture Fund’s 501(c)3 non-profit status. To learn more about Sea Pact visit their website at www.seapact.org and follow on twitter, facebook and linkedin.
Source: Sea Pact