Saving Seafood

New guidance for American seafood businesses to ensure supply chains protect human rights

April 25, 2024 — The following was released by Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions:

In the wake of new investigations uncovering forced labor in the seafood sector in India, China, and North Korea, a leading industry group is urging supermarkets, restaurants, and other businesses to accelerate efforts to eradicate human and labor rights abuses from their supply chains.

To aid companies in initiating or expediting their efforts, the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions today introduced a set of guidelines, measures, and resources to address the well-being of both people and the planet.

“The latest human and labor rights investigations confirm that the industry is facing a sea change,” said Ryan Bigelow, Project Director for the Alliance. “While progress is being made, it’s clear that it’s time for the industry to meet this issue with the urgency it deserves. Prioritizing human rights alongside conservation is not just the right thing to do; it’s the best thing companies can do to future-proof their businesses from consumer backlash and reputational damage.”

Bigelow added: “Companies of all sizes – from mass market retailers to family-owned sushi restaurants – have the power to apply pressure on suppliers, spur reforms, and create new markets, models, and supply chains that safeguard workers and the environment.”

Founded in 2008, the Alliance represents more than 150 seafood enterprises like Bumble Bee and Nestle Purina, NGOs, and environment and human rights experts across 30 countries. In North America, over 20 of the top 25 retailers, including Costco, Kroger, Target, and Aldi, have sustainable seafood partnerships with non-profits within the Alliance.

The world’s most widely traded food commodity, seafood involves complex supply chains, often passing through multiple intermediaries and countries before reaching the consumer. It is especially vulnerable to exploitation since the majority of operations take place in remote, high-seas areas, far removed from regulatory oversight, or in countries like India and China where auditing firms have limited ability to effectively monitor supply chains. With forced labor generating $236 billion in illegal profits annually – a sharp increase from $64 billion in 2014 – the European Union recently moved closer to joining the U.S. in banning products made with forced labor.

“As the focus around social and environmental responsibility and reporting intensifies, the Guidance provides a roadmap for companies of all sizes in the industry, no matter where they are in their journey,”  said Stacy Schultz, Director of Supply Chain Stewardship for Fortune Fish & Gourmet. “The Guidance assists by providing a framework and examples for businesses to help them understand evolving standards, regulations, and consumer expectations, as well as recommendations for goal setting and progress monitoring.”

“The Alliance’s 2008 guidance laid the foundation for the majority of US retailers’ seafood sustainability policies and commitments”, said Michelle Beritzhoff-Law, Senior Project Director, Fishwise. “This next iteration takes a more holistic view of sustainability, leverages international best practices, and aims to guide the broader seafood supply chain, not just end buyers.”

Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions aims for bigger impact

April 20, 2021 — The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions has announced a series of changes aimed at helping the seafood industry achieve greater adoption of sustainable practices and innovation. The changes are intended to support the organization’s 10-year goal of achieving 75 percent of global seafood production rated as environmentally sustainable or making verifiable improvement, and making sure safeguards are in place to ensure social responsibility.

The goal is part of the organization’s mission to drive alignment between NGOs, businesses, scientists, seafood experts, and governments around the world.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SFP unveils toolkit for aquaculture improvement

September 25, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to introduce the Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP) Toolkit, an online resource to support new AIPs and accelerate the adoption of better management practices across aquaculture industries.

Similar to fishery improvement projects (FIPs), an AIP is a multi-stakeholder process that addresses the cumulative environmental impacts and the shared risks associated with aquaculture. These projects utilize the power of the private sector to promote positive changes toward sustainability and seek to make these changes endure through policy change. If the industry works to develop AIPs in the same way it has worked to develop FIPs, SFP believes the aquaculture industry will thrive by addressing some of its key challenges, such as disease outbreaks and poor water quality.

“Compared to FIPs, the concept of an AIP is relatively new, less familiar, and far less established within the seafood industry,” said Dave Martin, deputy division director, programs at SFP. “However, they are an equally important mechanism for the supply chain to support industries along the journey toward sustainability.”

The new AIP Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance on how to initiate, implement, and report an AIP, and ultimately improve aquaculture policy and management strategies that result in improvements on the water. To make it more familiar and easy to use, SFP has adapted the AIP toolkit from the established guidelines for FIPs created by the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, and the AIP Toolkit’s style mirrors SFP’s existing FIP Toolkit and Resources. The toolkit includes an introduction to AIPs, general guidance on how to start an AIP, as well as templates and example documentation to support project implementation.

“We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. We’ve taken a model that is well-known to industry – the FIP model – and adapted it to the unique challenges of aquaculture,” said SFP CEO Jim Cannon. “Many of the steps in an AIP mirror the core attributes of a FIP: public supply chain commitments, published needs assessments, workplans with time-bound objectives, and regular public reporting of progress.”

The AIP toolkit notes that, in line with the FAO’s Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA), an AIP should operate at a scale beyond the farm level and focus on improved management at the resource, watershed, or landscape level (commonly referred to as zonal or area management). A report co-published last year by SFP, Conservation International, and the University California Santa Barbara’s Sustainable Fisheries Group is a complementary resource to the AIP toolkit that provides implementation guidance on three key principles of the EAA. All of this information, and more, can be found on SFP’s website at www.sustainablefish.org.