By reminding us of the connection between food, health systems, sustainable development and human rights, the global COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to build forward better. Even as we celebrate the contributions of small-scale fisheries to nutrition and food security within a rights-based framework, which is part of an ICSF campaign, we ought not to forget the context in which these are located. The global pandemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), commonly referred to as COVID-19, has swung the spotlight to illness, wellness and immunity. Precisely therein lies the importance of fish as food in various contexts and for diverse actors along the marine and inland fisheries value chain.