The following letter was sent to IntraFish by Eric Critchlow, US program director for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in response to Executive Editor John Fiorillo's recent column,Will coronavirus wipe out seafood's veterans.
I appreciate the perspectives shared relative to your question/suggestion regarding seafood industry veterans.
As an industry veteran, going back to 1974 and still active, I might suggest another perspective. The global reset we are in suggests to me the combination of veterans, bright new talent and technology provide the solution for the future. Three legs of the stool, if you will, [are] better than two.
Veterans bring a steady hand of experience (sometimes it takes more than one life-challenge experience to learn the full lesson), which provides stability. With such tremendous young talent now discovering and entering the seafood industry and landscape, I am encouraged more today than even a few years ago; we are in good hands moving forward.
Both talents, youth and seniors, together with existing and future technology seem to be the right combination for our current and future challenges -- bright new ideas seasoned with wisdom and executed with the help of technology.
Technology solutions abound, yet our industry has been relatively slow to adopt. Now is the time to push forward with a three-prong approach. All hands-on deck, if you will, experience not excluded, to blaze the path ahead.
Seafood veterans don’t pass on easily, most hang on until the end and are up to a good challenge -- think “Old Man and the Sea."
