Vision & Mission & Values
We envision a future with healthy aquatic ecosystems, a plentiful and profitable wild seafood supply, and thriving fishing communities.
More sustainable fisheries
At O2, we work hand in hand with local communities, seafood harvesters, seafood industry, supply chains and fishery stakeholders to design and implement science-based solutions towards more sustainable seafood production, improving livelihoods of fishing communities and helping to conserve the ocean and its resources.
Fisheries provide livelihoods for millions and food for billions. Demand for sustainable seafood, produced by responsible fisheries, has never been higher. However, collectively we are yet to meet that demand: much of the world’s seafood production remains unsustainable and poorly managed, having destructive effects on the surrounding ecosystem, such as bycatch. Many fisheries and seafood supply chains lack transparent, vetted information — this opacity presents social risks, such as labor abuses and it makes science-based management a challenge. In many cases, exploitative fishing practices take advantage of not only the ocean, but also local fishing communities and those which rely most on healthy fish populations. Despite a global movement to address these challenges, there remains a lack of culturally relevant and regionally specific tools and capacity to translate ambition to actual change on the water. This damages the oceans and imperils the communities and seafood supply chains on which we all depend. At Ocean Outcomes, we are working to change this.
Vision
We envision a future with healthy aquatic ecosystems, a plentiful and profitable wild seafood supply, and thriving fishing communities.
Mission
Our mission is to improve the sustainability of seafood production and its contributions to our collective environmental and socio-economic well being.
Equity Centered Values
At Ocean Outcomes, we understand that sustainability requires consideration of both environmental and socio-economic dimensions. Social and economic inequities have historically been — and continue to be — a problem in fisheries and throughout the seafood industry. Those with privilege exploit those with less power who depend on oceans and freshwater systems for their livelihoods: people who are often not white and often from the global south. Whether they are fishing crews on high seas fishing vessels; participants in community based, small-scale fisheries; or other workers within supply chains, these individuals are disadvantaged and marginalized by systemic injustices within and beyond the seafood industry. Acknowledging these inequities, addressing them and working to ensure more equitable distribution of socio-economic benefits to all seafood producers and suppliers is absolutely essential for successful and durable conservation outcomes.
O2’s culture, strategies and approach to our work emphasize equity and authenticity. Our goal is to understand and respect the needs of the people and partners we work with and support them to realize their agency. We acknowledge that our equity centered values are aspirational and we are continuing to learn and grow in our commitment to live them — in both our external mission and through our internal culture. We strive to take an adaptive and communications-centered approach to build bridges among stakeholders and work collaboratively with partners, towards common goals of making environmental and socio-economic fishery improvements in an equitable manner.
We also recognize that our internal culture is the foundation for realizing our equity goals and achieving our organizational mission. We seek to attract and retain staff who value integrity, transparency and trust. We value teamwork and sharing of knowledge, both internally and externally, to build on our collective strengths and interdependencies. O2 staff and Board believe in holding ourselves accountable to our organizational goals, our clients and all stakeholders affected by our work.
Learn more about where we work, what we do, our approach to fisheries improvement, the services we provide, our financial information and the latest news from our work.