Why tracing seafood from sea to plate is the next frontier in sustainability

The sustainability of fish is very important as it is one of the top food sources for human consumption. Read about the traceability process in this article from the World Wildlife Fund.

“Seafood is one of the most frequently traded commodities on earth. Millions of people depend on fish for their diets and fishing for their livelihoods, and the fishing industry plays a fundamental role in the effective management of our marine and coastal environments.

As such, it’s essential that fishing is well-regulated around the world. But regulations must be complied with to be effective, and unfortunately, too much of the fish that comes to market is caught illegally—that is, in violation of regulations meant to ensure that fish stocks remain healthy, marine and coastal environments are protected, and laborers are treated fairly.

“In a world in which demand for seafood protein has been rising and our oceans are sort of maxed out, we’re just at the start of reversing a decades-long crisis of overfishing,” says David Schorr, WWF’s senior manager for transparent seas. “We’re worried about making sure production of seafood gets on a sustainability pathway for environmental reasons, and increasingly for social reasons.”

Why traceability matters

The International Trade Commission reports that 11% of total US seafood imports in 2019 were derived from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. While 11% is hardly a majority, it amounts to $2.4 billion worth of illegal, unreported, and unregulated seafood in the US alone—a huge market that provides ample motivation for the continuation of illegal fishing. As long as there are markets where people can profit by selling illegally obtained fish, it will remain very difficult to put the global fish production system on a pathway to sustainability.”

To read the full article, click here.

Photo credit: Original Author

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