Australia’s demand for sustainable seafood is booming, with MSC-certified product sales nearly tripling in a decade. The 2025 MSC Sustainable Seafood Awards recognised leaders such as Coles, Woolworths, Walker Seafoods Australia and Austral Fisheries for advancing sustainable fishing and consumer education, reflecting growing shopper demand for trusted eco-labels.
The Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia recognise and celebrate organisations and individuals making a significant contribution to ensure we have fish forever. The annual awards is proudly hosted by the Marine Stewardship Council in partnership with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
Award categories
The MSC has the following award categories, with the winners announced Friday 27 March 2026.
- Best Sustainable Seafood Supermarket
- Best Sustainable Seafood Product
- Best Sustainable Seafood Brand
- Community Champion
- Sustainable Fishing Hero
- Lifetime Achievement
Judging panel
The following judges are assessing MSC award entries.
Aaron Irving
GM Deepwater at Seafood New Zealand
Bill Wall
Business Engagement Manager - Large Scale Fisheries at The Nature Conservancy
Dan Daugaard
Associate Professor at The University of Tasmania
Ian Rumsby
Chief Client Officer at APCO Worldwide in South East Asia.
Katherine Short
Founder, Principal & Director at F.L.O.W. Collaborative Ltd (Fisheries. Livelihoods. Ocean. Well-being.)
Dr Lucy Buxton
Co-Founder and Director at Ocean Decade Australia
Minnie Constan
CEO at FoodService Association Australia
Simon Rowe
Operations Manager at OceanWatch Australia
Sissel Rosengren
Managing Director at Food Industry Foresight
2025 Award Winners
Leading the charge, Coles, Woolworths, Walker Seafoods Australia, Bidfood, Sydney Zoo and Austral Fisheries were recognised at the Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia.
What winners will receive
Winners will receive:
- International recognition as Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia winners
- Award trophy, certificate and graphics
- Unique marketing claim
- PR and marketing support to communicate your win
- Speaking engagements and preferential marketing opportunities
Highlights from the 2025 awards event
By entering the Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia (the Awards), you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. The Marine Stewardship Council and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (the Organisers) are the joint organisers of the Awards.
1. The Awards are open to partners of the Organisers who are registered and based in Australia as well as individuals who are based in Australia and who have made a significant contribution to the vision and mission of the Organisers. Each category will state if it is for an organisation or an individual.
2. The criteria for each award category is listed with its description on the awards web page at https://www.msc.org/en-au/what-we-are-doing/the-sustainable-seafood-awards-australia for the MSC and at https://au.asc-aqua.org/campaigns/the-sustainable-seafood-awards-australia/ for the ASC.
3. Your entry must be factually correct. Upon reviewing your application, the Organisers will fact-check against its own records. Only factually correct applications will be submitted to the judging panel for judging.
4. To enter the Awards, you must apply on the ASC or MSC website before the closing date
5. You may apply to enter more than one category, but you must submit a separate form for each category.
6. Your entry must relate to a relevant activity that took place during the 2025 calendar year. Supporting evidence should be supplied.
7. You agree that your application and supporting evidence can be shared with the relevant judges.
8. Entry submissions are open until Friday, 30 January 2025, at 6 pm (AEDT). The winners will be announced and listed on the MSC website and can start communicating their award wins from the conclusion of the event on a date in March 2026, TBC.
9. There is no entry cost for the Awards.
10. Each entry must have a single contact person to communicate with the Organisers.
11. You agree to provide supporting evidence, including but not limited to imagery, video, web links, and data in the format requested by the Organisers.
12. You agree to the Organisers using any or all of your application and supporting evidence for internal purposes without prior consent. The Organisers will work with winners to communicate their award(s) and reserve the right to mention award winners in all correspondence freely.
13. Some award categories will be judged. Awards judges cannot be entered in the category they are judging.
14. If any awards judge has a conflict of interest regarding an entry, that judge will not judge that entry and may be removed from judging the category in which that entry is entered. The Organisers will decide whether there is a conflict of interest and welcome any information you might have to support this decision. Once the decision has been made, it will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
15. For judged categories, judges will judge based on a scorecard. There will be a pass/fail mark, so entries achieving over the pass mark will be eligible to win. Each category will have at least two judges assessing the entries. Scores will then be averaged per entry. The entry with the highest average score will win. Where relevant, runner-up positions will be based on the next highest scores. In the event of a tie, the Organisers will take a deciding vote. The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into. For categories based on a public vote, the entrant with the highest votes over 1,000 will win.
16. If evidence emerges at any time that shows misconduct, such as (but not limited to) influencing the judges or falsifying evidence, then the Organisers reserve the right to remove an application or award at any time.
17. The Organisers reserve the right to change the dates, cancel the Awards, or amend these terms and conditions without prior notice.
18. You (individual or organisation) must not be under investigation by any Australian or international statutory body during the application process.
19. If there are zero applications for a category, or if the only applications entered do not meet the criteria, there will be no award for that category. The Organisers will use their discretion, and any decision is final with no correspondence entered into. The Organisers will do their best to encourage entries.
20. The Organisers accept no responsibility for failed delivery of an application. You are welcome to check that we have received it by emailing your local ASC or MSC contact.
21. These terms and conditions are governed by and will be interpreted by the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Courts of the Commonwealth of Australia will have exclusive jurisdiction.
22. Privacy: The Organisers may collect personal information from you (such as your name, home/business address, and email) to facilitate your participation in the Awards. It may be provided to the Organisers partnered delivery agents to assist with the public communications of the Awards. If you wish to opt out of this, please indicate the personal information you would like to withhold within your application.
23. Data controller: The Marine Stewardship Council is the data controller of the MSC award entries and will store and process your data per its privacy policy.
Last updated: 3 December 2025
2025
2024
Coles was named the MSC's Best Sustainable Seafood Supermarket, and the ASC awarded ALDI the Best Responsible Seafood Retailer title. MSC’s Best Sustainable Seafood Product - Shelf went to John West Salmon Bowls. I&J was named ASC’s Best Responsible Seafood Brand, and Birds’ Eye Frozen Steam Fresh Fillets took the ASC’s Best Responsible Seafood Product award home.
Read the full list of the 2024 award winners
2023
ALDI, Simplot, Austral Fisheries, Goolwa PipiCo, and Mars Petcare are amongst the winners named in the seventh Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia, run by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).
Read the full list of the 2023 award winners
2022
Coles, ALDI, Tassal, Simplot, Tuna Australia and Mars Petcare are amongst the 18 winners named across 13 categories in the sixth Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia, run by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).
Read the full list of the 2022 award winners
2021
Austral Fisheries Glacier 51 Toothfish has taken out the title of Best Sustainable Seafood Product for the second year running, this time shared with the newly Marine Stewardship Council certified Fremantle Octopus range. Meanwhile, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council certified Australian Clean Seas kingfish scooped the accolade for Best Responsible Seafood Product.
Read the full list of the 2021 award winners
2020
Coles, ALDI, Woolworths, Taronga Zoo and Austral Fisheries were amongst those named in the Marine Stewardship Council’s 2020 Sustainable Seafood Awards Australia.
Read the full list of the 2020 award winners
2019
Coles, John West, IKEA and Taronga Zoo are celebrated in the national awards.
Read the full list of the 2019 award winners
2018
There were no awards this year.
2017
Simplot, Sealord, Taronga Zoo, Coles and Mandurah Crabfest all take home awards.