Richard Boot is the founder and President of Fishchoice.Prior to founding Fishchoice in 2008, Richard worked as Director of Operations for FishWise (Sustainable Fishery Advocates). At FishWise he developed training and implementation programs for use in grocery stores’ meat and seafood departments. Richard has formed collaborations with national environmental NGOs on a variety of subjects including mercury labeling and education and sourcing of environmentally preferable seafood products.   

Richard has worked with fishermen and fishing associations in Morro Bay, California to help bring their seafood products to the retail marketplace and continues to keep relationships with aquaculture operators to help market their products for US consumers. He currently works with national seafood distributors to help them provide accurate catch method information to retail grocers and assists seafood distributors and wholesalers in sourcing of seafood products that have been ranked environmentally preferable by FishWise and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program’s methodology.    

Before getting involved with the sustainable seafood movement, Richard graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in Business Economics. He managed large restaurants for Chart House Inc. and Landry’s and has worked as chef, buyer, and kitchen manager in the hospitality industry.