Courtney Nichols Gould, successful entrepreneur and co-founder of NewAtlantis Labs and SmartyPants Vitamins, has explained how omega-3 can create a business that has great traction on platforms such as Amazon. But at the same time, he made us aware that we need to know how to look after the environment and create sustainable models from all angles.

"The company that educated us about the link between marine health and human health is called SmartyPants Vitamins, and we started it because we were dealing with a problem that many other parents were dealing with: the gaps in our children's diets. Our two-year-old son would only eat white foods and we ended up looking for a multivitamin to fill that gap in his diet," Gould candidly explained.

But this multivitamin came with strings attached: "We wanted it to be affordable and we wanted it to be from a company we felt good about. The good news was that these products existed, but the problem was that there were six different multivitamins, and for us that was a problem we felt we could solve". They approached it in 2011 from the perspective of children's health in the US and saw that supplements were actually cheap and easy to take, but omega-3s were not. "Children in the US were not getting enough, but neither were adults of all ages," he said.

One of the reasons is that "we hear a lot about mercury and we've been educated about the problem of bioaccumulation, that the bigger the fish we eat, the more mercury we're likely to get. The problem of bioaccumulation is real, and unfortunately for pregnant women, where it's so important for foetal development and foetal health, you get recommendations not to eat fish".

They started thinking about how to make a product that would address all the problems parents wanted to solve, but in a responsible way, making sure it was a clean product that children would eat every day. They decided on anchoveta sardines, "a much better source and a much better solution for us". They took a fairly large financial risk and went ahead with a product that was the first in the country to sell a multivitamin on Amazon that combined omega-3 fatty acids in a sustainable way. "We focused on small fish sources only, and that was a key part of our success." Within six months they became the number one children's vitamin and within a year the number one selling multivitamin and fish oil.

The sustainability issue

This mercury-free anchovy sardine came from a Peruvian fishery: "It was actually a good thing because it showed that it was managed sustainably, but it was closed because demand had increased so much that it was on the verge of collapse. We were very lucky because we sold our business to a large company with whom we felt we had a good partnership.

The general increase in interest in omega-3s, but also in preventive health, was seen with Covid-19: "People started to understand it very well, especially in the US where we have a terrible healthcare system.

Gould drew three main conclusions from his experience. First, "our fates are tied to fish. Our health depends on a healthy functioning ecosystem, and the healthy ecosystem now depends on us. He also learned that "we have to find a way to support the communities that live around these areas. If we don't address poverty, people will just be trying to feed their children. Finally, he said, "I don't agree that the decisions we make don't make a difference. He cited the case of the arapaima, a fish that was on the brink of collapse but has recovered by 600% in 10 years thanks to sustainable fishing practices.