The Consortium of Sustainability and Goodness

It was at the 2013 EUAC meeting that we downed a few gin & tonics with our friends from Dynasty Marine and Cairns Marine.

At first glance, you’d think they are competitors of Flying Sharks. Truth is, we often find ourselves working together, because we operate in completely different corners of the planet. We’re based in the Azores, Peniche and Olhão while Dynasty calls Florida home and Cairns rules Australian waters. Different oceans, same mindset.

Our friendship and mutual respect go back to 1998, when João was still their client and ordered a few beautiful B747 charters stuffed to the gills with sharks, rays and a small army of fish for the grand opening of the Oceanário de Lisboa. Back then, he was buying from them. Today, we stand side by side as partners.

But our alliance is not just about conference drinks and swapping war stories.

All three companies are fiercely committed to sustainability. That means individual hand collection – literally one animal at a time – with zero chemicals, zero destructive gear, zero shortcuts that might harm the environment. We are borderline obsessive about traceability. Every single animal we sell to an aquarium has a story, a paper trail, and accountability attached to it. The word “responsibility” is not marketing fluff for us; it’s a non-negotiable standard.

For all these reasons – and perhaps with one g & t too many in our systems – we proudly baptized ourselves “The Consortium of Sustainability and Goodness”.

The very next morning I called my dear friend Leonor Sousa and asked her for a logo featuring a panda diving with a net in one hand and bright orange swim shorts. She loved the madness and came back with this glorious flag we recently flew during our latest Saudi adventure.

There is, however, one tiny catch (pardon our pun): collecting animals one by one is expensive. Very expensive.

It’s no coincidence that the three partners of this Consortium are often labelled the most expensive in the world. But let’s be honest: when you want quality, you have to be willing to pay for it.

If you’re looking for cheap fish scooped up in a frenzy, we can give you a few names who don’t share our concerns. In that case, there’s really no point in calling us.

PS – Below you will find (top row) João fooling around with Lyle Squire Jr. and Ben Daughtry, from Cairns and Dynasty, respectively. Below are Rui Guedes (left) and Nuno Rodrigues (center) celebrating two weeks of amazing collections with Rahima-3’s wonderful Captain under a gorgeous Red Sea sunset!