Bumble Bee Seafood Company Invests in Ocean Regeneration. Ocean regenerative practices are those that restore and regenerate the ocean ecosystem and simultaneously sequester carbon for positive climate impact. 

According to Bumble Bee Seafood Company’s CEO, Jan Tharp, “Despite many challenges, we never lost sight of our sustainability and social impact commitments and were able to meet and even accelerate many of our goals. I am extremely proud of the progress we have made. Yet, there is more to be done. The events [of 2021] have reinforced the reality that we are living in a world where we are inextricably linked both to each other and with nature. It is essential that we all nurture this wonderful planet that feeds us.”

As a part of their sustainable initiative, Bumble Bee has partnered with SeaTrees, an organization working with communities around the world to plant and protect “blue carbon” coastal ecosystems like mangrove and kelp forests, seagrass and coral reefs. 

“The ocean has the superpower to reverse climate change, but we need to help it happen by protecting and restoring blue-carbon (the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems),” Michael Stewart, co-founder of SeaTrees, stated.

Together, SeaTrees and Bumble Bee aim to fill an important gap. Ocean health has long been neglected — despite its role as a regulator of global climate, a source of protein for hundreds of millions, and a repository of rich biodiversity. Human impacts and unsustainable exploitation have resulted in millions of tons of plastic in waterways, the degradation of coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems, and the strain on fisheries to feed a growing population.

SeaTrees measures their impact with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, protecting and regenerating ecosystems that provide critical habitat for countless species, long-term employment for local communities and defending those communities from storm surges and sea-level rise.

In the last decade, 80% of kelp forests have disappeared from the coast of Southern California, and 95% is gone from the northern part of the state. To help combat this loss of vital ecosystems, Bumble Bee has pledged to restore the kelp square footage — equivalent to three Olympic-size swimming pools — to the coast of Los Angeles (just south of their canning facility in Santa Fe Springs). In doing so, they joined forces with one of the largest and most successful ongoing kelp restoration projects in the world, supported by SeaTrees in direct partnership with The Bay Foundation. Additionally, the company is helping SeaTrees plant 15,000 mangrove trees off Biak Island in Indonesia. 

Bumble Bee has also invested in the Oyster Recovery Partnership’s mission to restore oyster reefs, replanting 500,000 oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) is the nonprofit expert in Chesapeake Bay oyster restoration. They’re restoring the Bay’s native oyster population by building sanctuary reefs, rebuilding public fishery reefs, supporting the aquaculture (oyster farming) industry, recycling oyster shells, and getting the public involved through hands-on volunteering and events. Since their founding in 1994, and with the support of major partners like the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Lab, ORP has planted more than nine billion oysters on 3,000 acres of reef and recycled more than 250,000 bushels of shell.

Oyster shell is the best, most natural material used to rebuild oyster reefs, but it’s also in very short supply. To save this ecologically important byproduct, ORP created the Shell Recycling Alliance in 2010 to reclaim shell, free of charge, from restaurants and other seafood businesses. Shell that otherwise would be dumped in landfills is now recycled, cleaned, treated with baby oysters and put back into the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

In fact, ORP is now the nation’s largest shell recycling network, annually collecting 20,000 bushels of shell from approximately 200 restaurants and 70 public drop sites in the mid-Atlantic region. Since the Alliance’s launch, ORP has reclaimed 246,523 bushels of shell, which equates to 9,400 tons kept out of area landfills, more than $350,000 saved by local businesses in waste collection fees, and enough substrate to support the planting of more than one billion oysters in local waters.

“We will continue to aggressively tackle the challenges of sustainable fishing, safe and fair labor practices and plastic waste. We are also adding support to our Seafood Future platform to include organizations doing incredible work restoring crucial ocean ecosystems through regenerative ocean practices,” Tharp states.