By: M. Chusnan M, Putri Darmayanti

Marine Buddies Surabaya, which is one of WWF-Indonesia assisted communities with a vision and mission to save the coastal and marine environment through public campaigns, strongly supports WWF-Indonesia's Seafood Savers program.

On Monday, December 10 2018 to be exact, Marine Buddies were involved in an activity held by Seafood Savers WWF-Indonesia in the form of outreach. The event which was held at the Mercure Hotel Surabaya carried the theme Responsible Seafood For a Healthy Living by inviting Indonesian Chef Association East Java, which was attended by around 58 chefs who are members of it.

Since 2009, Seafood Savers which is a WWF-Indonesia program has encouraged fishery producers, retailers and institutions engaged in fisheries towards sustainable fishing practices. One of the main programs of seafood savers is bridging fishery producers and retailers to fishery products that have eco-label certificates. In another sense, the fishing company has met the requirements for responsible fishing practices. The eco-label certifications encouraged by Seafood Savers are MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) and ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council).

MSC is an eco-label given to capture fisheries companies with sustainable practices, while ASC is an eco-label certification aimed at aquaculture companies that carry out sustainable aquaculture practices.

With a vision and mission to support Indonesian fisheries towards sustainability, Marine Buddies as a community for coastal and marine health activities for sustainable fisheries programs, of course, really support this program. Besides fishery products being caught and processed in a good and responsible way, this program will also indirectly protect coastal and marine ecosystems through education given to the community.

Many things were conveyed on the socialization agenda, especially regarding data on the Republic of Indonesia's Fisheries Management Area or often abbreviated as WPP NRI. In WPP NRI there is a marine catch availability status marked with 3 colors, namely  green means it can be caught, yellow means if it is caught it will be less, and red means it is forbidden to be caught.

In this activity, Seafood Savers invited chefs to know more about the rules in the process of selecting fish, purchasing to processing food  em>seafood good and environmentally friendly.

This very interesting running activity was packed in a short time but felt efficient, for 2.5 hours. The event was closed with a FGD (Focus Group Discussion) which required chefs who are members of different groups to discuss the questions that had been prepared by the Seafood Team Savers in the discussion forum. Apart from the interesting technicalities of the event, the purpose of this event was no less interesting, one of which was to broaden the knowledge of the chefs who attended regarding the importance of the role of chefs in realizing the activities responsible, sustainable and environmentally friendly fisheries.

As a community engaged in campaign activities and concrete actions for the preservation of Indonesia's coastal and marine ecosystems, we really appreciate this FGD activity, apart from adding insight regarding the condition of Indonesian fisheries, activities like this are also able to provide a stimulus to members of the Marine Buddies Surabaya community to be more active in actions further community action. 

Come on.. Together we will become wise consumers in owning and consuming fishery products. Greetings Lestari.