The ocean in the pet industry

From fish oils to pet-care products; exploring the hidden role of the ocean in our pets’ lives.

Please note that the products mentioned in this article were previously provided to the author as a free gift by Dew Products. The author is under no contractual obligation to post, and all opinions expressed below are entirely my own. We would also like to disclose that the Director of The Ocean Literacy Project Prof. Leanne Hepburn is also a board advisor for Dew Products.

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

When you think about caring for your dog what comes to mind?

A balanced diet. Daily walks. Dog toys EVERYWHERE. Maybe even a bottle of salmon oil for a glossy coat, or another bottle of shampoo because they’ve rolled in something questionable for what feels like the millionth time this week.

The ocean is probably not on that list – but it should be…

Whether it’s the fish in their dinner, the omega-3 supplement in breakfast, the ingredients in their grooming products, or the plastic packaging around their favourite treats, the ocean is already an integral part of modern dog ownership.

The challenge is that these connections often go unnoticed. And perhaps the next step in responsible pet ownership is understanding how those choices connect to the world around us.

The global pet care industry is massive with Fortune Business Insights estimating the value between $181.9 billion and $273.4 billion in 2025 with the expectation that it will reach just under $500 billion by the early 2030s.

This is why the pet industry is no exception to needing to become more ocean literate.

The Ocean in Your Dog’s Bowl

There’s a reason the dog-food aisle is starting to look a lot more like any other supermarket aisle.

Freshly prepared meals. Whole ingredients. Subscription plans. Recipes with recognisable cuts of meat and vegetables.

Products now promising the same quality we’d expect in our own dinners.

The UK particularly is in the middle of a growing premiumisation and humanisation of pet food, with owners increasingly treating their dogs as true family members and looking for food that reflects the standards applied to their own diets.

But a premium price tag, recognisable ingredients or a human-style recipe does not automatically translate to a sustainably produced product.

And I think the premiumisation of dog food actually makes ocean conservation more important than ever.

If we’re seeing consumers regularly willing to pay more for ‘high-quality’ fish, fresh seafood ingredients or marine-derived supplements, what is likely to happen to the demand for these ingredients as the market grows?

Fish has become a popular ingredient in dog food due to its high protein content and essential fatty acids, while also being highly digestible. And for many dogs with allergies fish recipes are often marketed as the alternative option.

Add onto this the growing dog supplement market.

Fish oils, particularly salmon, have seemingly become synonymous with glossy coats, cognitive function, and joint support. In more recent years algae and seaweed appear more in treats and supplements to offer a ‘plant-based’ alternative for omega-3. None of this is inherently a problem.

Marine ingredients do genuinely provide nutritional benefits. But every ingredient has an origin story. Every bottle of fish oil, every salmon meal and every algae supplement come from an ecosystem. Understanding these ecosystems is just as important as understanding what’s on the nutrition label.

The question isn’t as easy as whether a marine ingredient is good for your dog, but rather what its production means for the ecosystem it came from.

The pet industry’s relationship with ocean health

The ocean obviously gives a lot to the pet industry, so what does the industry give back?

For the first time in history, we farm more fish than is caught in the wild and so as the demand for marine ingredients grows so does the importance of responsible sourcing (FAO 2026).

Fisheries are living ecosystems supporting species, food webs and coastal communities. This is part of the reason we have to think beyond the product itself.

The Krill Question

One of the clearest examples is Antarctic krill.

Krill are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that are fundamental to the Southern Ocean food web. They support the entire Antarctic ecosystem from the bottom up feeding whales, penguins, seals, fish and seabirds.

Antarctic krill are harvested commercially for things including omega-3 supplements and aquaculture feed. This year the industry had to close the fishery on the 12th of August around three months early after triggering the precautionary 620,000 tonne catch limit for the second year in a row (The Fish Site).

At the same time climate change is potentially permanently altering the sea-ice conditions that krill are dependent on throughout their lifecycle, making fishing pressure an added pressure on an already stressed ecosystem.

The issue isn’t that all products containing marine-derived ingredients are automatically unsustainable, it’s that being ocean literate encourages us to see the bigger picture.

And in krill’s case when an ingredient comes from one of the planet’s most ecologically significant ecosystems, it’s worth understanding more than just the nutritional benefits.

What happens when we wash it away

It’s not just what goes into our dogs that matters, but also what gets down the drain.

Dog shampoo, paw cleaners, ear cleaners, dental products, medicines and other products are all part of our everyday lives, but once we’ve used them, many of their ingredients make their way into wastewater systems.

This doesn’t automatically mean that giving your dog that likes to roll around in fox poo every walk a bath is secretly destroying the ocean. But it does bear remembering that our bathrooms are connected to larger water systems.

I've become more conscious of this through using Dew Products pet-care range with my own dogs over the last six months. What initially appealed to me was the practical side of the products: they fit into the very ordinary, slightly chaotic reality of having two dogs. But using them also made me think more about what we're putting onto our dogs, what happens when those products are washed or wiped away, and how little we tend to think about the journey beyond the bottle.

Dew provides an interesting practical example. Its range uses electrolysed water and salt to produce hypochlorous acid at low concentrations, rather than relying on some of the conventional formulations found in pet cleaning products.

But the point here isn't that one product or one company has solved the environmental footprint of pet care. The more interesting question is what products like this encourage us to think about: what are we putting into our homes, onto our animals and ultimately into our water systems?

It’s not just what’s inside the bag

The connection to the ocean is also everything surrounding that product.

Dog food packaging, treat wrappers, poo bags, grooming product bottles and even dog toys all have an environmental footprint. It’s about the materials used to make a product, package it, transport it and dispose of it.

Like lots of plastic waste these packages can make their way into rivers eventually making their way into the ocean.

Reading between the labels

Walk down any pet aisle or scroll on a website and you might be overwhelmed by seemingly reassuring phrases: ‘sustainably sourced’, ‘responsibly caught’, ‘marine ingredients’, ‘ocean-friendly’, ‘ethically sourced’.

They all sound positive and encouraging that there are environmentally conscious options for your dog, but the problem is that most of the time they’re not actually telling us much.

Unfortunately in a lot of cases they are used as marketing clickbait with no backed independent certification scheme, traceability and evidence.

But that’s a bigger issue than just dog food; it also applies to supplements, shampoos, toys and even accessories.

As consumers it can feel like a full-time job understanding and researching the claims on packaging to get the clear picture surrounding the product. Becoming an ocean literate pet owner doesn’t mean being a fishing expert or understanding supply chains but rather getting more comfortable at asking the right questions of companies.

What does sustainably sourced actually mean?

Can the company provide traceability for their ingredients?

Is there independent certification?

Curiosity is not about trying to catch a company out in a gotcha moment over a ‘false claim’. It is about recognising that true transparency helps everyone make better informed decisions.

Marketing is optional. Information is not.

Being an ocean literate pet owner

So what does all this actually mean when you’re standing in the pet aisle or scrolling on a website feeling overwhelmed with the fear of making the ‘wrong choice’?

I don’t think being ocean literate means finding the ‘perfect products’ or never making mistakes in your choices for your dog, it means staying curious and open to change.

Recognising that the food you’re putting in your dog’s bowl is connected to the ocean, that the supplement you add to it has come from some far away ecosystem, and that the packaging you throw away has a life beyond the bin.

The ocean is not a distant, abstract place that exists outside our everyday lives, it’s intrinsically linked throughout our and our dogs’ lives. And once you start looking you see the connections everywhere.

Caring for your dog and caring for the ocean don’t have to be competing priorities. Becoming an ocean-literate pet owner isn't about being perfect. It's about asking better questions, understanding the bigger picture, and recognising that caring for our pets also means understanding the systems that sustain them.