July 30, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for a digital transformation in seafood, according to ThisFish Inc. Co-Founder and CEO Eric Enno Tamm.
The seafood industry is lagging behind other industries in its embrace of digitization and move toward greater transparency in supply chains, Tamm said, and it must embrace the opportunity provided by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic to reorganize itself.
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.
July 7, 2021 — Liane Thompson and her husband and business partner, Simeon Pieterkosky, were well ahead of the blue economy curve when they founded Aquaai in 2014. Simeon’s work was in robotics and climate change, but his daughter had the vision for their company’s priority.
“I met Simeon while I was working as a journalist in the Middle East, and he had made a promise to his child to save the seas,” Thompson explainsed. “After his daughter learned of the ocean crisis at school, she came home and said, ‘Dad, enough with the land-based robots. Can you please make a robot to save the seas and help the planet?’”
Thompson, CEO at Aquaai, believes that turning their attention to the oceans and a commitment to sustainability and affordability has shaped what they do.
“Our long-term vision is to help keep humanity alive through sustainable and environmentally friendly practices by combining risk management with biomimicry,” she said.
Aquaai makes biomimetic robotic fish, autonomous underwater vehicles that are selective laser sintering (SLS) 3-D printed and can be deployed by a single person to monitor aquaculture fisheries and other underwater industries. The device’s small size and the way it “swims” allows it to get close to the sources it is monitoring to gather data, images and footage. These are then delivered to a web dashboard for clients.
June 30, 2021 — American shoppers cruising down the seafood aisle — even those hundreds of miles away from a working coastline — are increasingly concerned about the health of the ocean.
The decline of fish populations and ocean health is the sixth highest environmental concern worldwide, but Americans prioritize it even higher — ranking ocean health as their third highest environmental concern, according to 2020 survey conducted by independent research and strategy consultancy, Globescan.
Love for the ocean is translating into a desire to protect it — especially when Americans go to the grocery store. Consumers are ready to go to bat for sustainable seafood and companies that prove their willingness to protect the ocean.
Some 57 percent of 19,000 consumers surveyed in the United States and Canada are willing to change their buying habits to reduce their impact on the environment, according to a survey conducted by IBM and The National Retail Federation in 2020. The same is true of seafood buyers: According to the 2020 Globescan survey, 55 percent of U.S. seafood consumers agreed that in order to protect the ocean, fish and seafood should be consumed only from sustainable sources. Furthermore, the study found 65 percent of Americans believe supermarkets should remove all unsustainable fish and seafood products from their shelves.
When shoppers are standing in grocery stores, how do they know the full story behind the seafood in front of them? Oftentimes, they look for eco-labels, a third-party label or logo which identifies products proven to be environmentally preferable, which have proliferated in recent decades. The Globescan study found that 64 percent of Americans believe retailers’ and brands’ claims about sustainability and the environment need to be clearly labeled by an independent organization.
June 18, 2021 — A paper published in Nature Communications, “Financing a sustainable ocean economy,” was among a long list of articles, announcements, and pledges that appeared on 8 June, commemorating World Oceans Day.
The paper’s authors, a group of international economists and ocean policy experts, found that public and private investment lags far behind that needed to ensure a thriving, resilient, and sustainable ocean economy.
June 17, 2021 — A comment by a star of state-run media has triggered a national debate on the impact of growing Chinese consumption of seafood.
Chinese-American blogger and filmmaker Gu Yue, who also goes by Kyle Johnson, has been taken to task by Chinese users on Sina Weibo for comments he made calling for more responsible consumption of seafood in China.
June 15, 2021 — A growing number of class-action lawsuits are being filed against seafood retailers and foodservice outlets, claiming their offerings do not meet their own sustainability claims.
Earlier this month, in a complaint filed in the U.S. Superior Court in the District of Columbia, ALDI was accused of false advertising and marketing, with the advocacy group GMO/Toxin Free USA alleging ALDI’s claim that its salmon is sustainably sourced is not credible. Earlier this year, Mowi agreed to settle a similar lawsuit for USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.1 million). The complaint alleged that the sustainability claims on its Ducktrap River of Maine smoked salmon were false.
June 11, 2021 — In seafood circles, the Maldives is heralded as one of the world’s most-important tuna-fishing nations, an acknowledgement proudly welcomed by Maldivians. But what isn’t so apparent to most non-natives is just how vital tuna is to the island nation. Its 2,000-year history is literally built on catching these universally-prized fish. Moreover, it’s been doing this in pretty much the same way down through the centuries – one-by-one. Essentially, one fisher, using one fishing line, catching one fish at a time.
Its fisheries laws prohibit purse-seining, gillnets, trawl nets, or any other form of commercial fishing that uses a net. At the same time, the country’s exclusive economic zone isn’t leased to other nations and it has a strict policy of not licensing foreign fishing vessels.
June 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative:
The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative is pleased to announce that Auchan has joined GSSI as a Funding Partner.
Auchan is a next generation retailer that has been serving the public for 60 years. As a changing retailer in a changing world, Auchan’s current ambition is to meet today’s purchase- and health-conscious omni-channel consumers with the goal and desire to bring change to their lives.
“We work every day at our level for responsible fishing and aquaculture. We are constantly updating our sustainable fisheries policy, in response to consumers’ concerns about the quality of products and to ensure sound management of the resource, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals for aquatic life. It is through the GSSI programme that we wish to further strengthen our involvement in the conservation and wise management of resources.” said Matthieu Trenchand, quality manager of Auchan.
June 9, 2021 — The Walton Family Foundation has pledged USD 6.7 million (EUR 5.5 million) to support the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, renewing its foundational grant to the seafood sustainability-focused nonprofit.
The Walton Family Foundation support of SFP is aimed at advancing sustainability initiatives covering octopus, tuna, shrimp, squid, mahi, whitefish, reduction fisheries, blue swimming crab, and snapper and grouper. SFP is in the midst of its Target 75 campaign, which seeks to move 75 percent of the global production of crucial seafood sectors into fisheries certified as sustainable (Marine Stewardship Council-certified or equivalent) or classified as improving under a credible fishery improvement project.