News & insights / Stories / 16.05.25

Join the #DivedNotDredged Movement and Serve Sustainable Seafood

WE’RE THRILLED TO BE SUPPORTING THE #DIVEDNOTDREDGED CAMPAIGN FROM MARINE CONSERVATION CHARITY OPEN SEAS, HIGHLIGHTING THE NEED FOR GREATER CARE AND TRANSPARENCY WHEN IT COMES TO SOURCING SEAFOOD.

Open Seas is a Scottish marine conservation charity working to protect and restore Scotland’s coastal seas through improved fisheries management, marine protection and sustainable seafood advocacy. The Sustainable Restaurant Association is proudly supporting their #DivedNotDredged campaign, celebrating Scottish hand-dived scallops and the importance of sustainably sourced seafood in general. In this article, we share what the campaign is all about and how your business can get involved.

Launching #DivedNotDredged

We were proud to be involved in a very special event at the award-winning Inver restaurant in Argyll, Scotland last Friday, 9th May. Organised by Open Seas to launch their #DivedNotDredged campaign, this provided the space for a much-needed and timely conversation about transparency and sustainability in the seafood industry and what this means for chefs.

The event included a seafood lunch composed of dishes by Chefs Pam Brunton (Inver), Lloyd Morse (The Palmerston), Rosie Healey (Gloriosa) and James Ferguson (The Kinneuchar Inn), all pictured above. The beautiful menu highlighted the power of low-impact fishing and food storytelling in protecting our seas.

Our own Head of Growth Will Browning hosted a Q&A after the meal, with the goal of sharing practical knowledge about what’s needed to protect marine environments and how chefs and restaurants can do this: things like asking about the catch method and choosing hand-dived scallops over dredged.

With fishermen, chefs, journalists and policy-makers in attendance, the discussion revolved largely around responsible sourcing and transparency in our supply chains and on our menus. Chefs from across Scotland’s hospitality scene pledged their support for hand-dived scallops and discussed how the industry can help protect marine habitats by choosing seafood sourced from local suppliers that prioritise sustainable fishing methods.

“During the #DivedNotDredged event at Inver, attending chefs expressed a strong commitment to sourcing scallops and seafood sustainably, recognising hand dived as the clear best choice for scallops,” said Andrea Ladas, Sustainable Seafood Officer at Open Seas. “While navigating the complexities of broader seafood sustainability can sometimes be challenging, they always welcome support from expert organisations such as Open Seas and The SRA in informing their choices, and are continuously exploring the best way to transparently communicate their sourcing practices, whether through trained staff, menus that always include the catch method for seafood, or detailed seafood sourcing policies to be shared with suppliers, customers and the public.” 

What is the #DivedNotDredged campaign?

Through this campaign, Open Seas is urging seafood buyers, wholesalers, and retailers to follow the example set by these forward-thinking chefs, supporting hand-dived scallops and rejecting seafood caught using destructive catch methods like scallop dredging.

Scallops are predominantly harvested by two fishing methods: hand-diving and dredging. Hand-diving is an exceptionally low-impact fishing method, selectively harvesting scallops with minimal disturbance to marine habitats and zero bycatch, and Scottish hand-dived scallops are widely recognised as the gold standard in both quality and sustainability. In fact, scallop diving is one of Scotland’s most sustainable industries, providing quality seafood to the hospitality sector while supporting well-paid jobs in coastal communities.

In contrast, scallop dredging — the most damaging fishing method in Europe — scrapes the seabed with heavy metal rakes, destroying fragile habitats and catching unintended species. By damaging the seabed, dredging is also reducing the ocean’s critical role as a natural carbon sink, contributing to the climate crisis. Influential Scottish chefs, such as the late Andrew Fairlie, have previously spoken out about the impacts of scallop dredging, arguing for better fisheries management to protect the future of sustainable seafood gastronomy in Scotland.

Yet, current regulations allow scallop dredging boats to operate in over 90% of inshore waters around the UK and Scotland, damaging marine habitats and fishing grounds. You can learn more about this issue from the Open Seas report ‘Sea To Plate: Insights into the Scottish and UK Scallop Market’.

In August 2024, Open Seas surveyed the menus of 111 restaurants. Of 57 restaurants that sold scallops, only 12 stated their catch method. In all cases, hand-dived was the method stated on their menu. The lack of information on how all the other scallops had been caught makes it almost impossible for customers to make the right choices.

While hand-dived scallops are the primary focus of the #DivedNotDredged campaign, the wider goal is to spark a wider conversation about the lack of transparency in how our seafood is sourced. Customers simply don’t have enough information about where fish comes from, and there is not the same understanding of the industry’s problems as there is for other products. The average consumer likely knows the difference between a conventionally-reared chicken and an organic one, and is aware that vegetarian food is, generally, more climate-friendly than meat, but has little frame of reference when it comes to scallops or salmon.

What can chefs do to source seafood sustainably?

When you’re purchasing scallops or any other seafood, always ask about the catch method.
Choose hand-dived scallops and avoid dredged ones. It’s true that hand-dived scallops are more expensive, but this is because the seabed hasn’t paid your bill.
Avoid destructive catch methods for other seafood, too. Fishing practices like bottom trawling have devastating impacts on the seabed and marine habitats, while over-exploiting marine populations. Methods like long-lining and gillnets also lead to the incidental deaths of thousands of other animals each year, such as dolphins, porpoises, turtles and sea birds.
Avoid putting any endangered species on your menu.
Look for fisheries and suppliers that have a recognised, science-based certification, such as MSC’s blue label, or look for green-rated options in the MCS Good Fish Guide.
Choose smaller fish from lower down the food chain as alternatives to larger options like tuna or salmon.
Serve environmentally positive seafood items like bivalves (scallops, mussels, clams and oysters) and sea vegetables.
Use every part of the fish and seafood you buy, implementing a ‘fin-to-gill’ approach and eliminating waste wherever possible.
Train your team on what sustainability means when it comes to seafood, and why it’s a priority. This helps the kitchen team to take pride in where their ingredients come from and gives front-of-house staff the language they need in interacting with customers.
Make sure sourcing policies are clearly explained on your website and social media, and include provenance and catch method on the menu for all the seafood you serve.

The #DivedNotDredged campaign continues

Open Seas’ #DivedNotDredged campaign will continue with an event at The Duke Organic in London, bringing together chefs, scallop divers, food influencers, policy-makers and seafood industry leaders to spotlight the importance of prioritising sustainable fishing in Scottish waters and promoting responsible seafood sourcing that doesn't harm marine habitats. We’ll be supporting Open Seas once again at this event, sharing insights into why ‘Source Seafood Sustainably’ is one of 10 key focus areas in the Food Made Good Framework.

In this section of the Food Made Good Standard, we aim to ensure that the seafood sourced by Food Made Good-certified businesses is caught or farmed in a manner that protects marine and freshwater ecosystems and does not come from biologically unsustainable stocks, such as overfished or endangered species.

This is why we are proudly supporting the #DivedNotDredged campaign, advocating for clear labelling of catch methods on menus and greater industry support for low-impact, fair fishing practices. Hospitality is a sector with enormous influence over both the food system and the consumer; it’s time more chefs start to use this for the good of our oceans.

Learn more about Open Seas and the #DivedNotDredged campaign here. For more insights and stories from sustainable restaurants, hotels and bars across the globe, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and sign up to our newsletter! 

Interested in how your own sustainability work measures up across the 10 key focus areas of the Food Made Good Framework? Take our free Food For Thought quiz to find out.

All photos courtesy of Open Seas. 

Our Head of Growth, Will Browning, leads the panel discussion with the four chefs

Head of Marketing & Communications

JOCELYN DOYLE

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Jocelyn heads up our Marketing & Comms team and is responsible for managing our content strategy, growing our audience and building our global reputation. Jocelyn holds a BSc in Hospitality Management and an MSc in Food Culture & Communications, and is a member of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild. Her background includes on-the-ground F&B experience; a decade of food writing, editing and publishing; content creation for some of Ireland’s biggest food brands; and developing the content strategy for a suite of menu management and carbon tracking software.