Happy Clam

The Problem

Overfishing is a global problem that is rapidly causing ecological degradation and that threatens to cause ecological collapse if unchecked. In the United States, seafood consumption is rising and nearly a third of all seafood is purchased for at-home consumption. Although there are resources such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch that can advise consumers on sustainable seafood choices, lack of awareness of these resources means that consumers proliferate harmful fishing practices with their purchases.

Our Proposal

To better inform at-home seafood consumers we have devised a browser extension that searches for seafood related strings within webpage text to discern if a user is looking at a seafood recipe. If a consumer downloads the extension and is then looking at a webpage and a [weight] or [amount] string, such as pound(s), ounce(s), fillet(s), is found in conjunction with a [seafood] string such as salmon or cod, the browser extension will call forth a window with recommendations for that [seafood] type from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, or another seafood rating service. Empowering consumers with information to make the best seafood choice long before they shop or reach the point of sale can help to change seafood buying behavior. Additionally, this simple solution requires no steps, beyond downloading the extension, for sustainable seafood information to be shared when it is most appropriate, at the beginning of the consumer's decision making process.

We Assume that...

At-home cooks are uninformed about sustainable seafood options

At-home cooks need assistance in making seafood decisions

At-home cooks seek online tools to make sustainable decisions

Constraints to Overcome

One barrier to solving for overfishing is that consumers are not well informed about the processes that result in overfishing such as illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, harmful nets and gear, and more fisheries management. Seafood rating systems, such as that devised by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, distill this information into an understandable and usable decision making aid. By partnering with these rating services, Happy Clam will increase access to these decision making aids and empower and inform consumers to make the most sustainable seafood decisions.

Current Work

1. Reach out to several seafood rating services to form a partnership for this extension. 2. Develop browser extension backend 3. Work with partners and web designer to design browser extension interface

Current Needs

Technical expertise: back and front end developers and designers Organizational partnership