"If we save the sea, we save our world." Earth Day at Rockfish

David Attenborough said it better than we ever could: "If we save the sea, we save our world." The ocean produces more than half of the world's oxygen, absorbs a third of the carbon dioxide we produce, and regulates the climate systems that make life on land possible. Earth Day tends to turn our attention to forests and land, but the sea is where this story really begins, and where it could end if we stop paying attention.

Of course, the clue is in the name; when you hear “Rockfish” you think of the sea, and when you think of the sea you probably start to think about sustainability

Of course on Earth Day there is one word you likely cannot escape: sustainability. In 2026 you hear the word thrown around more than ever, and not always carefully. Whenever we talk about sustainability, we try to be as specific as possible. Sustainability in seafood isn't one thing, but a set of decisions, made daily, that either compound into something meaningful or slowly unravel into greenwash. Here is what it means to us in practice.

It means being on Brixham quayside before 4am to choose what we buy, rather than ordering from a website photo. The fish we serve in our restaurants and deliver through the Online Seafood Market is selected by people who know the boats, know the fishermen, and know what a good morning at market looks like. It travels a few hundred yards from the auction floor to our facility, where it's prepared the same day. The food miles involved would make a lot of supply chains blush.

It means zero waste. Everything that comes off those boats and into our hands is either sold fresh or, if it’s not sold that day, blast frozen at peak quality on the quayside. Nothing goes to waste. Even the fish delivery boxes that reach your door can be returned to us, where they’re turned into garden furniture!

It means eating with the seasons and trusting the rhythm that the sea sets for us. Our menus follow what's seasonal and what’s actually being landed, not what's convenient or consistent, but what's genuinely at its best right now. That means celebrating crab when crab is ready, championing hake when hake is abundant, and resisting the temptation to serve fish out of season simply because it sells. The species on our menus come from fisheries we trust, all either MSC-certified, or working toward certification through Fishery Improvement Plans, or the local boats we've bought from for years at Brixham market and know by name. 

It means championing the fish that British waters do brilliantly and that too few people know. We are an island nation sitting on some of the finest fishing grounds in the world, and yet 80% of what the UK consumes is imported, while most of what our own fleet lands is shipped to France and Spain. Coley, gurnard, hake, pollock, megrim are all extraordinary fish, caught by local boats, every bit as delicious as the more popular choices and in far better shape. The feeling we get when someone tells us how much they enjoyed a fish they’ve not tried before is a tricky feeling to top. 

But sustainability, in the fullest sense, is about people as much as it is about fish. The fishing communities of the South West (the skippers, the crew, the market workers, the processors to name a few) are the custodians of British seafood. When those communities thrive, the sea is looked after. When they struggle, corners get cut and stocks get pushed. 

Rockfish guests have helped us raise funds for community projects, initiatives and charities across Devon and Dorset, through the simple act of a £1 donation added to a bill. We make it happen, we organise it, but the generosity is theirs. We're proud of what that collective giving adds up to, and we're proud of the places it supports.

Mitch is also a co-founder and board member of the Devon Environmental Foundation, a charity which accelerates local nature restoration by funding grassroots, innovative, and impactful projects that protect and restore nature in Devon. 

Working in an industry that comes under scrutiny isn't always easy, but if anything, it sharpens our focus. The noise around “sustainable” seafood makes us more certain of our direction, not less. 

The ocean gives us everything. The least we can do is pay attention, and that’s what Earth Day is about.