New Zealand Seafood Sustainability and Innovation Awards 2025

This award is open to individuals and groups across the seafood sector who:

• are leaders in driving market engagement, advancing customer experience, and furthering marketing effectiveness and accountability through smart technology and marketing process, or
• have contributed to the improvement of handling or processing techniques, leading to a value-added product, better utilisation or distribution from target species, and the use of by-products of existing fisheries, or
• have developed new products that have resulted in higher export returns while protecting sustainability.

This award is open to individuals and groups across the seafood sector who:

• have made significant contributions to the protection of vulnerable marine species or the mitigation of environmental impacts, or 
• have contributed to the sharing of sustainability knowledge among seafood industry communities or New Zealanders through research, education, or engagement.

This award is open to individuals and groups across the seafood sector who:

• make a significant effort towards guardianship in their practice through spatial management, minimisation or mitigation of environmental impacts, or protection of vulnerable species (for example, marine mammals, seabirds, inanga, tuna, or kōura), or
• make a significant contribution to sustainability knowledge in fishing or aquaculture communities and New Zealanders through science and research or education and engagement.

This award is open to individuals and groups across the seafood sector who:

• have developed, invested in, or implemented an innovative product, tool or method, which has led to more sustainable practice (for example, catch efficiency, reduced by-catch, reduced waste, full utilisation), while also contributing to an increase in productivity and/or export growth within the last 24 months, or
• have reduced their impacts on the natural environment through innovative practices.

This award is open to individuals under 35-years-old across the seafood sector who:

• have contributed to the sharing of sustainability knowledge among seafood industry communities or New Zealanders through research, education, or engagement, or
• have already demonstrated a significant commitment to the sustainability of New Zealand’s fisheries, aquaculture, or wider aquatic environment, or
• have identified new production methods, efficiencies, other opportunities to reduce impacts on the natural environment through innovative practices.

This award is for an individual or a group that has made a long-term contribution to the sustainability and innovation of the seafood sector. To enter this award, you must be nominated by someone else –  you cannot nominate yourself.

The winner will have:

• championed seafood sustainability over a long period, or
• developed innovative methods or tools, or demonstrated effective collaboration across the sector, to enable sustainable outcomes, or
• significantly contributed to New Zealand’s reputation for high quality and sustainable marine products.