One Protein. One Mission. No Drama. : How Wild & Farmed Shrimp Are Getting It by Getting Along

At a recent event hosted by the Global Shrimp Council during Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, we witnessed something that honestly stopped us in our tracks.

Wild shrimp harvesters. Farmed shrimp producers. Not just in the same room — but laughing. Mingling. Strategizing. Collaborating.

And not in some abstract, wishful-thinking kind of way. They were talking about their combined efforts to promote all shrimp — regardless of origin or production method — through the Global Shrimp Council.

For an industry so often defined by its divisions, it was a powerful reminder: We. Can. Get. Along!

The Global Shrimp Council: One Protein, One Mission

The Global Shrimp Council (GSC) was formed to promote shrimp as a healthy, sustainable, and joyful protein — uniting the global shrimp industry under a single mission and brand. Their vision? To uplift shrimp across all forms: wild and farmed, domestic and imported, all species, all countries.

This isn’t about pushing one product over another.

It’s about elevating shrimp as a whole and reaching consumers with a message they can actually understand and feel good about.

At their Barcelona event, we stood shoulder to shoulder with producers and exporters from all over the world going beyond talk to engage in real collaboration. And honestly, it was a beautiful thing to see.

These moments don’t happen often in seafood. But they should.

At InnaSea Media, This Is the Dream

This kind of collaboration is exactly why we created InnaSea Media.

We come from different sides of the seafood world but we’re united by a shared belief that the future of this industry lies in collaboration, not competition.

InnaSea exists to change the way seafood tells its story. We’re not here to pick sides. We’re here to bridge them through strategy, storytelling, and content that actually resonates with today’s consumers.

Shrimp wasn’t going to elevate itself with more infighting — these aren’t crabs clawing over each other in a bucked (no shade to team crab). It needed better, collaborative marketing. And the Global Shrimp Council is showing the rest of us what that can look like: strategic, unified, and unapologetically joyful.

Seeing wild and farmed producers in the same room, working together under a shared banner, felt like our entire founding vision coming to life. This great networking moment was effectively living proof of concept.

The Bigger Picture: A Playbook for the Whole Industry

We say it over and over in a hundred different ways: the seafood industry has spent too long reacting to criticism, chasing bad press, and fighting battles on too many fronts.

When Seaspiracy dropped, the response was fragmented and defensive. Now, with another big-budget documentary (Ocean, narrated by the esteemed Sir David Attenborough) set to premiere soon, we’re bracing ourselves for another potential media storm.

We can’t keep operating from a place of fear on the outside, and scrapping with each other on the inside.

What the Global Shrimp Council is doing is different. It’s proactive, inclusive, and just plain smart. It doesn’t erase complexity — it embraces it in a way that still makes room for a cohesive, compelling story.

And this approach isn’t just for shrimp.

Whether it’s oysters or octopus, clams or cobia, wild-caught or farm-raised — we’re stronger when we stop trying to win against each other and start working together for each other.

So What Comes Next?

As storytellers and strategists working across the seafood supply chain, we’ve seen the damage that division does. We’ve also seen the magic that happens when people come together around a shared goal.

So here’s our invitation:

Let’s build an industry that stops tearing itself apart and starts building each other up. Let’s tell a story that’s big enough, bold enough, and unified enough to actually move the needle on consumer trust and demand.

Shrimp isn’t the only protein that deserves a better narrative, but it might just be the one that shows us how to start.

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Want to learn more about the Global Shrimp Council and their “Happy Protein” campaign? Read the full story here: SeafoodSource article