Saving Seafood

UN, in collab with WWF, publishes new Ocean Investment Protocol

September 24, 2026 — 4The United Nations, in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Greening Financial Regulation Initiative, has published a new revised edition of the Ocean Investment Protocol.

First released in 2025, the Ocean Investment Protocol gives investors and financial institutions a roadmap for how to support the ocean economy while also supporting sustainability and a healthy ocean. The protocols were designed to help investors align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide a framework that would increase investment in the blue economy.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Global Ghost Gear Initiative report provides recommendations for government action

August 11, 2021 — A new report has foundthe best way to reduce the impact of lost fishing gear is to enforce existing rules.

The report, “Ghost Gear Legislation Analysis,” was jointly written bythe World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Ocean Outcomes, and Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI). It assesses existing government legislation and policies addressing ghost gear and provides recommendations to governments to strengthen existing efforts and other actions to address lost, abandoned, or discarded fishing gear.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NGOs call on EU to require electronic monitoring to stop illegal fishing

June 25, 2021 — A group of 52 NGOs, retailers, seafood supply chain companies, and academic groups are urging the European Union fisheries ministers to add cameras and remote electronic monitoring (REM) to fishing fleets to help prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

The group, which includes organizations like the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Oceana, ClientEarth, and more, is calling on the E.U. to mandate cameras for vessels that are above 12 meters in length. Currently, the E.U. is planning mandates to add cameras, but only for certain vessels above 24 meters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Walton Family Foundation picks new strategy for oceans, fishery conservation work

June 18, 2021 — The Walton Family Foundation – which was created by the family of Walmart founders Sam and Helen Walton and  annually gives away more than USD 500 million (EUR 412.3 million) to charitable causes, including more than USD 90 million (EUR 74.2 million) in 2019 to environment-centered projects – has revamped its approach toward its marine conservation and support of seafood sustainability initiatives.

Heather D’Agnes, senior program officer and oceans initiative lead for the foundation’s environment program, told SeafoodSource in an interview that WFF recently launched a new five-year plan tailored toward maximizing its impact on specific fisheries and seafood-trading nations.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Report claims one-fifth of caviar and meat sold in key markets illegal

June 15, 2021 — A survey by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has revealed that the trade of caviar and sturgeon-based products in four key European countries continues to be plagued by illegal trading, hindering the recovery of seven of eight species of sturgeon in Eastern Europe that are on the brink of extinction.

WWF conducted a market survey within the European Union-funded LIFE project and published a resulting paper, “Sustainable Protection of Lower Danube Sturgeons by Preventing and Counteracting Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade,” laying out its findings. The research covered Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine – countries where sturgeon breed in the Lower Danube River and the northwestern Black Sea region. The Danube, along with the Rioni River in Georgia’s Caucasus, is one of two remaining rivers where migrating sturgeons reproduce naturally.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Second attempt at orange roughy MSC certification denied

April 13, 2021 — A second attempt by Australia’s orange roughy fishery certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard has been thrown out by an independent adjudicator.

The decision puts to rest a fight between WWF and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) over the certification of the orange roughy fishery, a species considered endangered, threatened, and protected under Australian law.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Companies back moratorium on deep sea mining

April 5, 2021 — A long-running dispute over plans to start mining the ocean floor has suddenly flared up.

For years it was only environmental groups that objected to the idea of digging up metals from the deep sea.

But now BMW, Volvo, Google and Samsung are lending their weight to calls for a moratorium on the proposals.

The move has been criticised by companies behind the deep sea mining plans, who say the practice is more sustainable in the ocean than on land.

The concept, first envisaged in the 1960s, is to extract billions of potato-sized rocks called nodules from the abyssal plains of the oceans several miles deep.

Rich in valuable minerals, these nodules have long been prized as the source of a new kind of gold rush that could supply the global economy for centuries.

Interest in them has intensified because many contain cobalt and other metals needed for the countless batteries that will power the electric vehicles of a zero-carbon economy.

Read the full story at BBC News

ISSF tuna stock status report shows increase in catch, little change in sustainability

April 5, 2021 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s (ISSF) “Status of the Stocks” report covering the status of the world’s tuna fisheries has found that most catch continues to be sourced from stocks at “healthy” levels of abundance.

The twice-yearly report by the ISSF – a cooperative program involving scientists, the tuna industry, and the World Wildlife Fund – breaks down the status of the world’s tuna stocks. The latest report represents the second since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first started impacting the work of regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IOTC delays yellowfin decision, WWF declares decision “lost opportunity”

March 12, 2021 — A special session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) ended on Friday, 12 March, with the regulatory organization punting on any decision to further reduce limits on yellowfin tuna fishing.

According to environmental non-governmental organization WWF, IOTC member-states failed to agree on a proposal that would have implemented a 20 percent cut in regional yellowfin tuna catches compared to 2014 levels.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Russian fishery authorities and WWF sign cooperation agreement

January 7, 2021 — The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia have signed an agreement outlining safeguards for Russia’s marine biological resources and the environment.

Signed by Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Head Ilya Shestakov and WWF-Russia Director Dmitry Gorshkov, the document also calls for closer efforts between WWF and the Russian government to study marine life and find more efficient ways to utilize it.

Read the full story at Seafood Source