Sea Products Ltd. is not engaged in fishing activities.  It purchases fresh seafood caught daily by artisan fishers living in fishing communities along the entire coastline of Tanzania.  Artisan fishers use traditional vessels and gear to catch the seafood the company purchases (see Fishing Gear and Methods).

Sea Products Ltd. actively promotes low impact artesian fishing rather than high impact industrial fishing.  On top of being better for the environment, artesian fishing benefits local fishing communities in that it brings in much needed family income for up to 4,000 artisan fishers on a daily basis. 

By providing training on post-harvest handling techniques and paying a premium price for top quality fresh seafood to be used as raw material in its processing plant, the company strives to maximize the value of the fisher’s daily catch.  In order to succeed, modern chilling containers and fresh sanitized flake ice is provided to fishers on a daily basis at no cost to fishers.

The company is also socially active outside the fishing sector, where it provides donations toward school construction and improvements, social sporting events, and cultural events.  Of most recent interest is the current project the company is working on; since the middle of 2008, Sea Products Ltd. has been trying to acquire a nearby building in which it would create a training and information centre for field visits for Tanzania’s primary and secondary students.

The current Tanzanian school curriculum does not provide for any marine related studies.  At the same time tens of thousands of Tanzanians live along the coast but have very little information about the sea and its environment.  The company’s vision is to create a training centre in Tanga where primary and secondary students from the region can go to on half day field trips, get a short spoken and visual lecture on the marine environment, fishing, seafood export, and fisheries management.  The field trip would then include a short visit to the company’s processing plant.

In the midst of a rapidly growing population leading to an everlarger strain on Tanzania’s marine resources, the main objective of the training centre will be to provide much needed information on sustainable resource use - fishing - to Tanzania’s future generations.  The training and information centre will also be open to NGOs, government institutions, and anyone else seeking the kind of information the centre will provide.  The company hopes to acquire the targeted building before the end of 2009.