Saving Seafood

A new all-in-one website for Aquaculture Improvement Projects

March 9, 2020 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

The AIP Directory (www.aipdirectory.org) is a new website that serves as an independent, online platform to showcase active aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs). It was developed by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) as an open platform for information sharing for anyone active or interested in AIPs.

Although less established than the more familiar fishery improvement projects (FIPs), AIPs are increasingly important as a mechanism for the supply chain to support better sustainability practices in aquaculture industries. Until now, there was no online resource to allow those actively involved or interested in AIPs to learn where and how these improvements were taking place or what progress was being made on specific projects. The launch of the AIP Directory will meet these needs.

“AIPs are an important tool to drive sustainability – whether participating farms have certified responsible management practices in place or not. It is important for ensuring impact and credibility that projects have a clear set of goals and a defined workplan, and that they are publicly reporting on progress,” Seafresh Group Director of Sustainability Dominique Gautier said. “The AIP Directory gives project managers a mechanism to tell the world about their progress, and buyers and funders greater insight into what improvement projects are underway and how they can get involved.”

The AIP Directory currently lists five active AIPs that cover three countries (China, Indonesia, and Thailand) and two species (shrimp and tilapia). Other active AIPs are invited to register on the website for free. The website also includes a range of resources and tools to support those looking to start new projects.

“The AIP Directory really is a one-stop shop for all stakeholders in the supply chain,” SFP’s Aquaculture Director Anton Immink said. “As a buyer, you can find active projects; as an AIP implementer, you can showcase your project and report progress. If you can’t find a project that fits your needs, there are tools and resources on how to start a new AIP.”

AIPs are multi-stakeholder efforts that aim to utilize the power of the private sector to promote positive changes toward sustainability, seek to make those changes endure through policy change, and improve performance at the farm and zonal scale. The characteristics of an AIP mirror the core attributes of a FIP: public supply chain commitments, published needs assessments, workplans with time-bound objectives, and regular reporting of progress.

What the History of Salmon Can Tell Us About the Future of the Planet

March 5, 2020 — Mark Kurlansky has been telling the story of how humans eat, one food at a time over the last 20 years. He has published popular books including Cod, Salt, and Milk, but his 33rd book is written with a new sense of urgency.

“Of all the things that I’ve looked at over the years, I’ve never run across anything that I found scarier than the fact that the oceans are losing their carrying capacity, that the ocean is losing its ability to feed fish. That’s another way of saying that the planet is losing its ability to sustain itself,” he said. “Salmon is one avenue to talk about that.

Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, released this week, includes a fascinating account of how these unique creatures live, sometimes navigating hundreds of miles back to their place of birth to spawn while leaping waterfalls and actively changing the color of their bodies.

“It’s just one of the most incredible animals in the animal kingdom. It’s extremely beautiful and has this incredible lifecycle that sounds like it was written by a Greek tragedy writer,” he said.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

Can You Eat Fish and Still Care About the Planet? We Talked to an Expert to Find Out.

February 20, 2020 — As someone who works on environmental policy issues for a living, I’m often asked by my friends and family what they can do that’s “better” for the planet. Drive an electric vehicle? Buy a reusable coffee mug? Bike to work? Eat veggie burgers? Recycle?

Most of the time, I don’t have a satisfactory answer; the answers I have aren’t always that straightforward, helpful, or even desired. If you care about climate change, eating more plants is great, but we also need a comprehensive and aggressive federal climate policy. If you care about plastic pollution, reusable mugs can cut down on single-use plastic, but they need to be used for a long time (several years) to make up for the energy used to make them.

One area that I have no reservations about, however, is seafood. It’s delicious; it’s a great source of micronutrients and omega-3s; and if you know how to shop for it, it can indeed be an environmentally responsible choice for dinner.

Make no mistake: The ocean is in dire need of protection. Overfishing, climate change, and pollution are major threats to the ocean and its ability to sustain human life.

The good news is that there are organizations working to turn those threats around — and you can help by voting with your dollars and choosing sustainable seafood at the grocery store. For example, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international nonprofit organization that has developed a science-based standard for environmentally sustainable fishing. If a wild-capture fishery meets those standards, its seafood products can be packaged with the MSC blue fish label.

Read the full story at Kitchn

New film aims to counter bias against farmed seafood

February 18, 2020 — Dongo Films, a Brussels, Belgium-based collective of independent documentary filmmakers, are hoping to raise more than EUR 325,000 (USD 355,700) on public fundraising platform Kickstarter to make a film promoting sustainable aquaculture. Their goal is to reach the ambitious target by 22 March, 2020, which will allow filming to start this summer.

The film, AquaPioneers, is the brainchild of filmmakers Marjolijn Prins and Mathias Ruelle, working with production manager Heleen Bolle. They are being advised by Marjolijn’s brother, sustainable aquaculture expert Tom Prins, a dealflow manager with venture capital firm Aqua-Spark, based in the Netherlands.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NGOs support MSC plan to close compartmentalization loophole

February 14, 2020 — A Marine Stewardship Council decision to remove the possibility for vessels to harvest both certified and non-certified catch using different gear practices at the same time, known as compartmentalization, has been lauded by NGOs who pushed for the change.

The decision came about through the MSC’s fisheries standards review, a review of the organizations standards that occurs every five years. The current review started in 2018. Compartmentalization has been criticized by NGOs and environmental groups, and an earlier attempt to propose a policy reform prohibiting the practice failed to pass in 2018.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Introducing the Fish Stock Sustainability Index 3.0

February 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Fish Stock Sustainability Index is a quarterly index that measures the performance of certain fish stocks. To make sure the index continues to focus on the most important commercial and recreational stocks, we’ve revised the list of included stocks.

The index allows for a quick, clear snapshot of the performance of U.S. fishery management. When the status of a commercially or recreationally important stock improves (e.g., no longer subject to overfishing, not overfished, or rebuilt), the total index score increases.

The index tracks a total of 175 fish stocks, down from 199 stocks in the previous version. The stocks in the index—selected for their importance to domestic fisheries—represent more than 80 percent of total U.S. fishing catch.

NOAA Fisheries tracks the status of all international and domestic stocks contained in federal fishery management plans whether or not they meet criteria for inclusion in the FSSI.

When we developed the index in 2005, it included 230 fish stocks and the maximum index score was 920 points. In 2015, we trimmed it to 199 stocks and a maximum score of 1,000.

Read the full release here

MAX MOSSLER: The truth behind seafood sustainability?

January 31, 2020 — People care about the impact of their diet. According to Nielson1, consumers are more likely than ever to acknowledge the environmental impact of global food production and make choices to reduce their individual footprint – usually willing to pay more for lower-impact foods. So why is seafood not flying off the shelves? It is, by far, the lowest impact animal protein2 and, according to a recent global analysis3, fish populations around the world are healthy in places that manage their fisheries well.

The problem is that people’s perception of ocean conservation and subsequent seafood sustainability is often misinformed. For example, when people are asked4 to rank ocean threats, pollution (like plastic) and overfishing are consistently listed as the top two despite expert consensus that climate change is the most pressing threat. The seafood industry has a largely negative5 reputation among everyday consumers and are increasingly blamed6 for plastic pollution.

Why does the negative perception of seafood persist?

Overfishing throughout the 1980s and 1990s earned the seafood industry its infamous label. High-profile media stories about overfishing coupled with the formation of several international ocean advocacy groups vilified the industry – a reputation the industry cannot seem to shake, despite important policy reforms and strong data that many global fisheries are firmly on a path to sustainability.

Read the full story at New Food

NOAA’s Laurel Bryant: US seafood industry, regulators should be proud of achieving “gold standard”

January 21, 2020 — Laurel Bryant, the chief of external affairs in NOAA Fisheries’ Communications Office, retired at the end of 2019.

In 1989, Laurel Bryant began her career working for the United States House of Representatives Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, the predecessor to the House Natural Resources Committee. By 1994, she joined the National Marine Fisheries Service where among other positions, she served as the executive director to the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, and launched a number of key initiatives to provide more timely information about agency science and stewardship mission, including the weekly electronic newsletter FishNews, and the seafood web interface FishWatch. As chief of external affairs, Bryant focused on building strategic partnerships for the agency to strengthen communications with a broader spectrum of stakeholders involved with the seafood supply chain and coastal fishing communities, and building greater familiarity and public support for U.S. responsibly managed fisheries and seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Precision fisheries of the future will rely on data and AI to improve profits

January 21, 2020 — The fishing industry is catching up to the data-driven digital revolution already remaking land-based agriculture and other industries.

And the fishing industry doesn’t need to wait for the future to arrive: the technology and advanced analytics that could improve environmental sustainability and increase profitability are available today, a recent report from global consulting and management firm McKinsey & Company concludes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fish populations around the world are improving

January 16, 2020 — The following was released by Sustainable Fisheries UW:

Let’s enjoy some unequivocal, inarguable good news: a paper published today in PNAS, Hilborn et al. 2020, shows that on average, scientifically-assessed fish populations around the world are healthy or improving. And, for fish populations that are not doing well, there is a clear roadmap to sustainability. With Australia on fire and scares of World War III, the start of 2020 and the new decade has been awful; hopefully Hilborn et al. 2020 can kickstart a decade of ocean optimism.

Hilborn et al. 2020 counters the perception that fish populations around the world are declining and the only solution is closing vast swaths of ocean to fishing. Instead, Hilborn et al. 2020 argues that increasing scientific, management, and enforcement capacity will lead to more abundant and sustainable oceans. The major takeaway of the paper is that fishery management works—when fisheries are managed, they are sustained. The key is following the science-to-management blueprint. Scientific data collection and fishery assessment comes first, then fishing regulation and enforcement of fishing policies. With the blueprint in place, most fisheries around the world are sustainable or improving.

The paper uses updates to the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database, a decades-long project to assemble data on fish populations that are scientifically assessed. As of 2019, the database contains data on 882 marine fish populations, representing about half of reported wild-caught seafood. In 2009, the database contained data on only 166, representing a much smaller proportion of global seafood. Researchers have spent the last 10 years adding to the database, and with today’s publication, update the global status of fish stocks. They found that, on average, fish populations are above target levels. Not every stock is doing well, but on average, things are much better than they were 2 decades ago. How nice: an environmental story where things are better now than they were in the past!

The paper describes the global status of fish stocks, but it also tells the story of fishery sustainability from the past 50 years.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW