2 May 2024

The 3-year project “Mr.Goodfish3.0: Co-creating Solutions for Sustainable Seafood Consumption” started on 1st May 2024 with funding from the European Commission’s Research & Innovation programme Horizon Europe. It will contribute to upscaling the Mr.Goodfish programme across the European Union in a large-scale awareness campaign and collaborative upgrade of the app.

About the Mr.Goodfish programme
Since its launch in March 2010 in France by Nausicaá, Centre National de la Mer, in Italy by Acquario di Genova and in Spain by Aquarium Finisterrae, the European programme "Mr.Goodfish" has continuously contributed to raising public awareness of the sustainable consumption of seafood. The programme has involved the public in preserving marine resources by publishing, each season, a list of seafood products recommended by marine resource specialists. This approach aims to preserve fragile seafood stocks by consuming other stocks that are available in abundance. Since 2017, the Mr.Goodfish programme has also issued recommendations concerning products from aquaculture.

A new European project to expand the programme
From May 2024, the Mr.Goodfish programme will be at the heart of a new European project called “Mr.Goodfish3.0: Co-creating Solutions for Sustainable Seafood Consumption”. This three-year project will receive a grant of 2 million euros under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation programme Horizon Europe. This new project responds to the call for proposals for a Coordination & Support Action (CSA) HORIZON-MISS-2023- OCEAN-01-10 launched in 2023, and addresses the EU Mission “Restore our Oceans & Waters” which aspires to protect and restore the health of European oceans and freshwaters through research & innovation, citizen engagement and investments in the blue economy, with a 2030 target.

In the continuity of the Mr.Goodfish programme, Mr.Goodfish3.0 aims to raise awareness for responsible consumption of sea, freshwater and aquaculture products. To do so, the project will upgrade and expand the Mr.Goodfish app as part of an EU-wide awareness campaign. The app will be part of an ecosystem of tools and activities to be co-created by stakeholders in three pilot sites and upscaled in two replication sites, each representing up to two of the following major European sea or freshwater basins: the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea & Channel, the Baltic Sea, the Artic Ocean, the Black Sea and the Danube River.

In this new project, co-creative & participatory methods will inform the development of new content for the app, enriching scientific data with socio-cultural and economic input through engagement with stakeholders throughout the seafood value chain as well as with citizens & consumers. The approach aims to be as inclusive as possible to reflect the diversity of social, cultural, health and economic contexts in which European citizens evolve. Thanks to this approach, the app will be upgraded with data on seasonal seafood in each basin along with information about health benefits or food waste as well as new co-created features.

The programme will also roll out a European-scale awareness campaign involving social and traditional media, a call for multipliers across EU Member States, the dissemination of a package of communication material and educational activities, reaching adults & youth alike and promoting the app & Mr.Goodfish label among European sustainable seafood providers. Mr.Goodfish will link up with other well-established initiatives such as the European Union’s #TasteTheOcean campaign.

In the next three years, the project aspires to reach 30 million European citizens, to award 200 new European businesses with the Mr.Goodfish label and to bring the app to all EU Member States by translating the content into all EU languages and providing lists of seasonal seafood adapted to the local context in each country. Up until now, Mr.Goodfish estimated that, if every French citizen was consuming a species recommended in its seasonal lists just once a year, approximately 18,000 tonnes of threatened species could be saved: now, one may consider the potential magnitude of this number when multiplied by 28 European countries, Norway included.

The Mr.Goodfish3.0 consortium
The consortium is coordinated by the Cyprus Marine & Maritime Institute, which will also supervise expert & stakeholder engagement, curate data intake for the app, and steer a pilot site covering the Mediterranean Sea. Nausicaá will take the lead in ensuring the continuity of the current Mr.Goodfish programme, upgrading the app and facilitating a pilot site covering the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea & Channel. Two major European-wide networks will set the pace in rolling out the awareness campaign, namely EUFIC – The European Food Information Council, and Ecsite - The European Network of Science Centres & Museums. In addition to Nausicaá, Ecsite will bring onboard three of its members: the science centre Nordnorsk Vitensenter in Tromsø, Norway, which will host a pilot site for the Arctic Ocean, the science centre Experyment in Gdynia, Poland, which will coordinate a replication site for the Baltic Sea, and the Center for Research & Analysis in Sofia, Bulgaria, with a replication site covering both the Black Sea and the Danube. The three pilot sites and two replication sites will benefit from the expertise of the Paris-based social innovation agency Three o’clock, which will oversee the co-creative and participatory approach of the project.