The Ocean Behind the Food on Your Plate: How ocean literacy can support better food choices and procurement decisions

Written By Leanne Hepburn

written by Alana Wilson (with editorial direction from Leanne Hepburn)

A dish with a hidden story

Your dinner tonight probably has a closer connection to the ocean than you realise.

That grilled salmon fillet, the fish fingers on your child's plate, or the prawns in your Friday night stir fry all have a backstory stretching far beyond the supermarket shelf. Behind every seafood meal is a web of relationships connecting people, ecosystems, economies, and politics.

It's easy to think seafood simply comes from "the sea". But the reality is far more interesting.

That dinner may have started with fishers leaving harbour before sunrise. It may have relied on seagrass meadows acting as nursery grounds for young fish, ocean currents carrying nutrients across vast distances, or international agreements determining who gets access to marine resources and who doesn't. Every meal tells a story about how we interact with the ocean.

And that's why this story isn't really about seafood at all.

It's about food security, climate change, livelihoods, and fairness. It's about understanding the systems that put food on our plates and what happens when those systems come under pressure.

The ocean feeds billions of people, supports entire communities and helps regulate the environmental conditions that make food production possible, but we don’t often talk about that in conversations about food.

The good news is that this isn't a problem without solutions. Consumers, food businesses, caterers, and procurement teams all have a role to play in shaping a healthier relationship with the ocean.

This is where ocean literacy comes in.

At its simplest, ocean literacy means understanding how the ocean influences us and how we influence the ocean. If we're serious about creating food systems that are resilient, sustainable, and capable of feeding future generations, that's knowledge we can't afford to ignore.

Why the ocean matters to your plate

The ocean is one of the most overlooked parts of our food system.

For millions of people around the world, particularly in coastal communities, seafood provides essential nutrition, income, and cultural identity. In many coastal regions, fishing practices are closely tied to traditional ecological knowledge, with generations of observation and experience shaping how communities understand and steward marine resources.

According to the FAO, aquatic foods provide around 20% of animal protein globally, but in some countries that figure is significantly higher. In Japan, seafood remains a major part of the national diet, while in small island states such as Kiribati it may contribute up to 90% of animal protein consumption.

But the ocean's contribution to food security goes much further than the fish we eat.

Healthy marine ecosystems help regulate our climate, absorb carbon dioxide, and influence weather patterns that affect food production around the world. Coral reefs, mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass meadows do an enormous amount of unseen work, supporting marine life and providing breeding and nursery grounds for countless species.

In other words, the ocean is one of the important foundations our food security depends on.

A UK perspective

The UK's relationship with seafood creates an interesting paradox.

As an island nation with a rich maritime heritage, we're surrounded by productive seas and have access to an incredible diversity of seafood species, so why does seafood still play a relatively small role in many people's diets, and demand is concentrated on a handful of familiar favourites: salmon, prawns and shrimp, cod, tuna and haddock?

The more surprising part?

Much of the seafood caught in UK waters is exported, while more than 80% of the seafood consumed in the UK is imported.

We export species that are abundant here and import species we've become accustomed to eating. It's a system built around decades of consumer habits, global trade, and successful marketing. But it also highlights just how disconnected we've become from the marine food systems operating on our own doorstep.

Most people understand that fish comes from the ocean. Far fewer understand how marine ecosystems support food security, jobs, and local economies. Fewer still understand the journey seafood takes from ocean to plate or the decisions that determine what ends up on supermarket shelves and catering menus.

That's why I think ocean literacy is such an important part of the conversation.

Building greater awareness of the responsibly sourced seafood available in UK waters could help support coastal communities, diversify consumer choices, and reduce pressure on a handful of heavily demanded species.

For procurement teams, schools, hospitals, universities and workplace caterers, there's a real opportunity to help reshape consumer habits by introducing people to seafood options they may never have considered before.

Simply put, UK seafood needs a rebrand.

Ocean literacy is ultimately about making these hidden connections visible and recognising that the ocean surrounding us is a vital part of the food system that sustains us.

The fragility of ocean ecosystems

The ocean's ability to support food security can't be taken for granted.

Overfishing

The latest assessments from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation suggest that more than a third of assessed fish stocks are being fished at biologically unsustainable levels.

That doesn't mean every fishery is in crisis. In fact, some fisheries are managed extremely well. But it does remind us that marine resources are not limitless, and when demand outpaces nature's ability to recover, ecosystems suffer.

Pollution

Pollution takes many forms. Microplastics, agricultural runoff and sewage pollution are all degrading marine habitats around the world.

In some areas, excess nutrients entering coastal waters create oxygen-depleted "dead zones" where marine life struggles to survive. One of the largest occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and can grow to an area comparable in size to the US state of New Jersey.

Climate Change

Climate change is adding another layer of pressure.

Rising ocean temperatures, acidification, and changing currents are altering marine ecosystems at an unprecedented pace. Fish populations are shifting their ranges, spawning seasons are changing and food webs are becoming increasingly disrupted.

The encouraging news is that decline isn't inevitable. Fisheries managed using strong scientific evidence consistently achieve better outcomes, demonstrating that healthy oceans and productive food systems can coexist.

Food security at risk

Did you know small-scale fishers (SSF) provide at least 40% of global fisheries catches? Globally, the livelihood of 1 in every 12 people, nearly half of them women, depends at least partly on small-scale fishing. These communities are also usually the first to feel the impacts of overfishing, climate change, and environmental degradation.

For communities that depend on seafood for both nutrition and income, declining fish stocks can have serious social and economic consequences. When local fisheries struggle, it's not just ecosystems that suffer. Jobs, livelihoods, and food security suffer too.

Even in wealthier nations, disruptions to seafood supply chains can lead to higher prices, reduced availability, and increased pressure on food systems. For businesses operating within food systems, these challenges create both risks and responsibilities. Reliable sourcing becomes more difficult when natural resources are under pressure, while costs and supply chain volatility increase.

The bottom line is simple: the ocean is directly connected to what's on our plates and the resilience of global food systems.

Know your seafood: looking beyond the label

Whether we realise it or not, every purchase we make is a vote with our money.

Awareness is valuable, but knowledge only becomes meaningful when it influences decisions.

For many consumers, sustainability labels are the first indication that a seafood product has been responsibly sourced. Certification schemes, like MSC labels (marine stewardship council – the blue tick), can play a vital role in improving standards and transparency, but they aren't a substitute for understanding the wider environmental and social impacts of seafood production.

As sustainability has become a stronger selling point, concerns about greenwashing have grown too. Terms such as "responsibly sourced", "sustainable" and "ocean-friendly" often appear on packaging, but they don't always explain what those claims actually mean in practice. That can make it difficult to distinguish genuine environmental stewardship from clever marketing (though new EU Green Claims regulations are intended to improve transparency and reduce misleading environmental claims).

Studies have repeatedly found instances of seafood being sold as a different species from that listed on the label, highlighting the challenges of traceability within complex global supply chains. While most consumers have little opportunity to verify these claims themselves, stronger transparency and independent verification can help build trust and accountability.

This is where ocean literacy becomes particularly valuable.

An ocean-literate consumer is more likely to ask questions. Where was this seafood sourced? Is the supply chain traceable? What evidence supports the sustainability claim? What impact does production have on marine ecosystems?

For procurement teams, this means looking beyond logos and labels alone. Strong sourcing decisions should be informed by supplier transparency, traceability, independent verification, and a broader understanding of ecosystem impacts.

Certification should absolutely be part of the picture, but it shouldn't be the only measure of sustainability.

Recent investigations into global seafood supply chains have also highlighted the challenges of traceability and the risks associated with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. For procurement professionals, this reinforces the importance of conducting proper due diligence rather than relying solely on claims made at the point of sale.

We are also starting to see examples of organisations translating sustainability commitments into procurement decisions. Earlier this year, Waitrose & Partners became the first major UK supermarket to suspend sales of North-East Atlantic mackerel after concerns that the fishery no longer met its responsible sourcing requirements. Rather than continuing to stock a popular product, the retailer chose to remove it from sale and encourage customers to consider alternative species. Whether people agreed with the decision or not, it demonstrates how procurement teams can influence supply chains, respond to scientific evidence and use purchasing decisions to support long-term sustainability goals.

Turning ocean literacy into action

Ocean literacy also encourages us to move beyond simplistic ideas about sustainable food.

There is no single dietary choice that will solve the challenges facing global food systems.

Food security depends on a diverse range of nutritious and responsibly produced foods supported by healthy ecosystems on both land and sea.

The question isn't just whether food comes from land or ocean. The more important question is how it is produced, sourced and managed?

This also applies to aquaculture, which now provides more than half of the aquatic foods consumed globally. When managed well, aquaculture can help improve food security, support livelihoods, and reduce pressure on some wild fish stocks. However, like all food production systems, its impacts depend on how it is designed and managed. Questions around feed sources, habitat impacts, pollution, and animal welfare all matter. Ocean literacy helps us move beyond assumptions and better understand the opportunities and trade-offs associated with different forms of food production.

For consumers, that might mean asking more questions about where food comes from and reducing food waste.

For food businesses, it means improving transparency, strengthening sourcing policies and collaborating more closely with suppliers to improve traceability.

For procurement teams, it means embedding environmental and social considerations into purchasing decisions and recognising that procurement choices can influence the sustainability of entire supply chains.

A shared responsibility

No single group can fix this alone. Consumers, businesses, policymakers, producers, and procurement professionals all influence the systems that connect the ocean to our plates.

The encouraging reality is that small decisions, repeated across millions of transactions and interactions, can create change. A more informed choice at the supermarket shelf or a stronger procurement policy may seem insignificant on its own, but collectively these decisions shape demand, encourage better practices and support more resilient food systems.

Ocean literacy gives us the context to make those decisions with greater confidence.

Looking beyond the plate

Every meal has a story behind it.

Increasingly, that story includes questions about sustainability, resilience, and the future of our food systems. The ocean sits at the centre of that story. It provides food, supports livelihoods, regulates the climate, and sustains ecosystems that millions of people rely on every day.

The next time you sit down to eat seafood, remember that you're not simply consuming a product. You are participating in a food system shaped by ecosystems, livelihoods, policy decisions, and consumer choices.

The more we understand those connections, the better equipped we are to protect them.

Recognising that connection is the first step towards building food systems that are genuinely resilient, sustainable, and capable of supporting future generations.

Sources

Recommended Further Reading

  • Four Fish by Paul Greenberg

  • The End of the Line by Charles Clover

  • Kings of Their Own Ocean by Karen Pinchin

  • Blue Machine by Helen Czerski

These books tell the story behind the seafood on our plates: how the ocean functions, how fisheries became global food systems, what happens when marine resources are pushed too far, and why understanding these connections matters if we want a healthier future for both people and the planet.

Leanne Hepburn
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