We could have built Tide & Tail around tuna, or salmon — proteins with more prestige and better margins. We chose sardines instead, and it wasn't a marketing decision.
A dog or cat eating fish treats shouldn't require the ocean to suffer for it. That meant looking for a fish low on the food chain, fished within sustainable limits, and caught in a way that does as little damage as possible.
Sardines are exactly that. As forage fish, they eat plankton rather than other fish, which means they don't concentrate mercury, and removing some from the ocean doesn't destabilise the wider ecosystem the way overfishing an apex predator like tuna or swordfish does.
Why We Source from Australia
Australian fisheries are some of the most closely regulated in the world — quotas are enforced, fish stocks are assessed regularly, and bycatch is actively minimised. Sourcing locally also means we can trace exactly where our sardines come from and how they were caught, rather than buying commodity fish meal from brokers with no real visibility into the supply chain.
It also means fresher fish, with a shorter trip from ocean to packet.
What Radical Transparency Actually Means Here
You should be able to ask "where did my dog or cat's sardines come from?" and get a real answer — not a shrug. Most pet food companies can't tell you. We can, because we chose a supply chain we could actually see end to end.
The Long View
Sardines are the first step in something bigger we're building: a brand that's genuinely ocean-positive, not just "minimal harm." Your dog or cat eats well, the ocean stays healthy, and you know exactly how that happened. That's the whole point.