The rise of seafood awareness campaigns in an era of collapsing fisheries

The human appetite for seafood has intensified and so has overfishing and damage to marine ecosystems. Recently, the response to the fisheries crisis has included a considerable effort directed toward raising the seafood awareness of consumers in North America and Europe. The resulting campaigns aim to affect the seafood demand and to lead to a sustainable seafood supply. Though there are indicators of some regional successes, lack of support by the Asian market and the proliferation of self-serving seafood labels are but two of the many significant limitations of these campaigns. This contribution investigates the difficulties and successes of seafood awareness campaigns, as well as the need for indicators of campaign effectiveness. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.