Saving Seafood

Tuna companies, NGOs call on FAO to better protect the welfare of fishers

September 12, 2022 — Seven members of the seafood industry and seven NGOs are calling upon the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to better protect the fisher’s welfare on wild-caught vessels by improving data collection and analysis of labor-related accidents.

Three major tuna processors, the Bolton Group, Bumble Bee, and Tri-Marine, along with seafood industry groups of Fedespesca, SEA Alliance, and the Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition have signed the call to action, which includes asking for a mechanism to gather better data and reduce fisher morality. The NGOs involved in the campaign are Earthworm, ADM Capital Foundation, ClientEarth, the Fishing Industry Association Papua New Guinea (FIA PNG), Friend of the Sea, FishWise, the Global Seafood Alliance, and the Teng Hoi Conservation Organization.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

FAO’s Manuel Barange calls for countries to make “blue transformation” a strategic priority

June 21, 2022 — Seafood plays a vital part in global food security and nutrition, yet only half of the countries with a nutrition strategy identify fish consumption as a key objective in their public policies, Manuel Barange, the director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Food, and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) said in his opening keynote address at the Blue Food Innovation Summit in London, U.K. on 14 June, 2022.

In his address, “Realizing the full potential of the blue food economy,” Barange said there are around 32,000 different species of fish in the world’s lakes, rivers, and oceans, “forming part of a valuable ecosystem. The biomass of fish is twelve times that of humans,” he said, making them a readily available source of food for the entire planet, especially impoverished, remote areas of the world.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

How Well is the Global Treaty to Ban Illegal Fishing Vessels Working?

June 6, 2022 — One of the biggest challenges facing the global ocean is illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Operating outside the constraints of laws, quotas and licences, IUU vessels commonly overfish, trawl in protected waters and take protected species.

IUU deprives countries of an estimated $26–50 billion annually. It depletes fish stocks and damages biodiversity, while threatening livelihoods and food security. It often takes place in developing coastal states that lack the governance and resources to monitor and protect their fish stocks effectively. More widely, IUU is linked to labor abuses, human trafficking and slavery.

To respond to these threats, in 2016 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) brought into force the first legally binding international agreement to tackle IUU fishing. So how does the Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) work, and what has it accomplished so far?

What is the PSMA?

The vast majority of wild-caught marine fish are landed in ports. The PSMA enables nations that are party to it – of which there are currently 70 – to use ports as a form of border control for foreign-flagged vessels. The treaty applies not only to fishing vessels, but also those that transfer catch and refuel at sea. Guided by the PSMA, port officials assess the risk that an incoming vessel may be engaged in illegal activities, and decide whether to let it dock.

By tightening port controls, in principle the PSMA shuts out vessels that profit from IUU activities, and slows the flow of illegal fish into global markets. Enforcing at ports is also safer and more economical than patrolling the high seas looking for vessels fishing illegally. The idea is that as more nations adopt the treaty and turn away vessels engaged in IUU, they will be forced to travel further and at greater expense to land their catch, until it’s no longer profitable, and they are deterred.

Read the full story at Maritime Executive

FAO, FishSource collaboration will create universal IDs for world’s major fisheries

May 5, 2022 — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) announced a new collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona Spain, on 26 April, 2022.

The FAO is collaborating with SFP to adopt the standards used in FishSource to establish unique, standardized IDs for the world’s major fisheries. These universal IDs will streamline seafood supply chains, increase transparency, and improve government data collection, SFP said. The IDs will be available to the public, and will not change to standardize data collection. This will help ensure discussion about certain fisheries across the industry, governments, NGOs, and others is actually about the same fisheries and stocks.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

FAO, NGOs push for guidelines on transshipment

January 31, 2022 — A campaign to develop, publicize, and enforce guidelines setting standards for the responsible management of transferring catch between vessels at sea is gaining momentum.

The Food and Agriculture Organization is leading an effort to close loopholes allowing for transshipment of catch on the high seas, a practice the United Nations organization said encourages illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

FAO head calls for innovation to support aquaculture growth

October 6, 2021 — World governments must embrace innovation and equity if the global aquaculture sector is to grow sustainably and be an all-inclusive food sector, according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu.

Dongyu said at the recent Global Conference on Aquaculture Millenium+20 in Shanghai, China, that aquaculture is currently the fastest growing agri-food sector – especially in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean –where there is “huge potential for further expansion.”

“Aquaculture production will continue to grow, but the benefits of this growth must be equitable and fairly distributed,” Dongyu said.

The conference, which is the fourth in the series, was organized by the FAO and China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), and featured addresses by several global seafood industry leaders and government representatives.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Sustainable seafood sales reached an all-time high as shoppers cooked at home in 2020-21

October 4, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The momentum behind the sustainable seafood movement continues to grow, according to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the international not for profit responsible for the world’s most widely used sustainable seafood ecolabel. Despite disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers bought record numbers of products with the blue MSC label in 2020-21.  

The new figures released today as part of the MSC’s annual report show that the volume of independently certified sustainable seafood sold with the MSC label increased nearly 6% between April 2020 and March 2021. In total 1,267,000 tonnes of MSC labelled seafood were sold globally, compared with 1,197,000 tonnes the year before.  

Types of seafood popular during Covid-19 lockdowns saw some of the biggest rises. Sales of frozen seafood products with the MSC label grew by 26% – the largest increase overall. While sales of MSC labelled canned fish rose by close to 4% globally, driven in part by a 50% year-on-year increase in sales of MSC labelled tuna products, putting global sales on course to reach 110,000 tonnes a year. 

Driving these increases is a growing consumer awareness of the need to protect our oceans [1], coupled with changes in shopping habits during the pandemic and growing commitments to sustainability from seafood brands. The US in particular saw a 54% increase in sales of MSC labelled sustainable seafood on the back of growing commitments from brands and retailers including Walmart. 

Increases in the availability and sales of sustainable seafood products have been supported by growth in supply. The report shows that despite massive disruptions to their operations, more fisheries and supply chain organisations became certified to catch and handle MSC certified seafood in 2020-21. The number of MSC certified fisheries increased to 421, now collectively responsible for 14% of all wild marine catch.  The year also saw a 5% increase in the number of organisations, such as supermarkets, restaurants, processors, distributors and warehouses, certified to  handle, process and package MSC certified seafood [2]. Worldwide, these organisations now operate in more than 46,200 sites. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, said: “The growth of the MSC’s program against the backdrop of the pandemic is a sign of the strength of the sustainable seafood movement. Despite the unprecedented challenges, more fisheries have become certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard, more brands are making bold commitments and more consumers continue to buy sustainably sourced fish.   

“But the challenges are growing. Too many governments continue to put short-term interests before sustainability. And globally the level of overfishing continues to rise. Institutional inertia is out of step with growing public activism around the oceans. The pandemic has heightened awareness of the need to protect our valuable natural resources. We’re calling on governments to seize this moment as an opportunity to support sustainable fisheries and seafood businesses by committing to measures that safeguard our fish stocks.” 

Despite the progress presented in the report, the MSC stresses that urgent action is still required to overcome the challenges facing the oceans. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020 report revealed that overfishing continues to rise, with more than a third (34%) of the world’s fish stock now overfished. 

The MSC’s report highlights that governments failed to reach agreement on ending harmful fishing subsidies, one of the major drivers of overfishing and have so far failed to reach agreements on quotas for mackerel, herring and blue whiting in the North East Atlantic. The future sustainability of global tuna stocks is also in jeopardy if international commissions responsible for managing tuna fail to set robust harvest strategies.  The MSC is calling for urgent action to address these challenges.

Read the MSC’s 2020-21 Annual Report, Recognising & rewarding sustainable fishing. 

Notes for editors:  

References:  

  1. 2020 Global Seafood Consumer Survey, MSC 
  2. There were 5,391 MSC Chain of Custody certificate holders on 31 March 2021 compared to 5,158 on 31 March 2020. This certification ensures that MSC certified seafood is kept separate from non-certified seafood and is clearly labelled.  

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation which sets globally recognised, science-based standards for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability. The MSC ecolabel and certification program recognises and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market. It is the only wild-capture fisheries certification and ecolabelling program that meets best practice requirements set by both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and ISEAL, the global membership association for sustainability standards. For more information visit msc.org. 

Somalia plans to streamline fishing permits to fight IUU

July 28, 2021 — Somalia, plagued with persistent incidents of piracy and rampant illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, is aiming to tighten its fishing licensing regime in order to end loopholes that result in illegal activity.

Amid claims of deep-rooted corruption within Somalia’s fishing industry, the country’s Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR), under the leadership of Minister Abdillahi Bidhan Warsame, plans to eliminate uncertainty brought about by each federal state in the country issuing separate fishing permits that other federal states do not recognize – creating loopholes for IUU fishing operators to thrive along the Somalia’s 3,330-kilometer coastline.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ROSAMOND NAYLOR: Making blue foods central to global food systems

July 19, 2021 — A friend used to tell me “something’s a-fish” when things were off kilter. Today, the global food system is not just “a-fish”; it’s failing billions of people.

Hunger, malnutrition and obesity coexist in rich and poor countries alike, often in the same town or even in the same home. Diabetes, heart disease, coastal dead zones and other social burdens connected to our food system continue to rise. In recognition of this urgent challenge, the United Nations will hold a global summit in September for government, business, nonprofit organizations and civil society leaders to map a more sustainable, healthy and equitable food system.

Transforming our food system will require a new mind-set and more careful consideration of blue foods — aquatic animals, plants and algae cultivated and captured in freshwater and marine environments.

Until now, the movement to build productive and sustainable food systems has focused on transforming land-based crops and livestock, largely overlooking the critical role that fish and other aquatic foods play in nutrition, livelihoods and ecosystems around the world. That role will increase as food production becomes increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

From Maine’s warming waters, kelp emerges as a potentially lucrative cash crop

June 28, 2021 — One bright, brisk morning last month, Colleen Francke steered her skiff a mile off the coast of Falmouth and cut the gas. A few white buoys bobbed in straight lines on the water. Francke reached down and hoisted a rope.

She has been lobstering for a decade and a half, she says, but as climate change warms local waters and forces lobsters northward, she’s been finding it harder to envision a future in that industry.

So, for the last two years, she’s been developing a new source of income. Heaving the rope aloft, she showed off her bounty: ribbons of brown, curly sugar kelp, raised on her 10-acre undersea farm.

Kelp, a seaweed more often thought of as a nuisance by fishermen, is emerging as a potentially lucrative crop, hailed for its many uses as a miracle food to an ingredient in bioplastics to a revolutionary way to feed beef cattle. And Maine officials, confronting a likely decline of the state’s iconic lobster fishing industry in coming decades, are now looking to kelp farming as a possible economic and environmental savior.

The state is working with local institutions to support training and grants for entrepreneurs such as Francke willing to move into kelp farming or other aquaculture ventures. It also labeled kelp a “natural climate solution” in its recently-released Climate Action plan. The goal, officials say, is to dramatically expand kelp farming as part of a reinvention of Maine’s seafood industry — and imagining a future in which kelp from Maine is held in something akin to the esteem that Maine lobster is now.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe