March 5, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:
The global squid sector has made notable progress in the past year toward sustainability goals, but much work remains to be done, according to the latest Target 75 sector report from Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP).
The report is an update of the same sector report released last year, with updated data and conclusions. SFP will be updating this and other sector reports until the end of 2020, the deadline for achieving the T75 goal—to get 75 percent or more of global seafood production by volume to be classified as sustainable or improving toward sustainability.
According to the report, a confirmed 14 percent of global production is now recognized as sustainable or improving. Much of the improvements can be traced back to efforts by the Committee for the Sustainable Management of the Southern Pacific Jumbo Flying Squid (CALAMASUR). The group has been working on key projects such as the Peruvian Jumbo Flying Squid Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), and negotiations with the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) to address stock structure issues, improved data collection, and other issues.
SFP also credits the development of a preliminary stock assessment model presented to the RFMO, as well as the launching of a FIP covering Japanese flying squid. “The current FIP volume reflects a relatively small percentage of global production, but the total Japanese flying squid production across China, Japan, and Korea makes up a significant volume and is essential to the T75 goal,” said Sam Grimley, who leads the Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable for SFP.
The report notes there is potential for much more of the sector to meet the T75 criteria.
“There are, fortunately, a number of fisheries making incremental improvements that are not yet publicly recorded under FIPs,” the report’s authors wrote. “It is possible that existing supply chain leverage and interest may be able to influence an additional 43 percent of global production.”
Management of fishing fleets in international waters will be the key. The report recommends working with Chinese and South Korean fisheries operating in waters off the coast of South America by leveraging market demand.
“SFP has always operated from the philosophy that industrial stakeholders can drive change by using the markets themselves,” said SFP CEO Jim Cannon. “Here we see a prime opportunity to demonstrate the real power the industry has to work toward more sustainable seafood production.”