Viewing: 101 Guides

Too many boats catching too many fish Large commercial fishing vessels more closely resemble space ships than boats. Wall-to-wall electronics allow captains to “see” beneath the surface to find ever-scarcer fish. The same technology enables boats to deploy huge nets, miles of line, and thousands of hooks, making it possible to catch an entire school of fish—and everything else in the way—in one pass. After emptying the waters in one region, boats simply move to another. This is overfishing: the serial depletion of fish…

Slicing and serving up the pie At one time almost all fishers fished as much as they could, as fast as they could, racing to catch as many fish as possible before the season ended or the total catch landed by all fishers reached its legal, predetermined cap. More fish equaled more profit. In contrast, catch shares assign a secure piece (or share) of the pie (or total allowable catch) to each individual, cooperative, or fishing community. Fishers have time to choose when and…

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated Piracy pays. Growing seafood demand, combined with fewer fish, poor traceability systems, and a vast ocean impossible to patrol adds up to big returns for those willing to catch fish illegally and funnel them into the legitimate supply chain. Whether it consists of fishing in forbidden waters, catching protected species, using prohibited gear, or catching more than allowed, pirate fishing causes enormous economic and environmental damage. It skews the market for honest fishers, diverts revenue and food supply from coastal…

The laws of the sea How can you regulate something you can’t see? Though that might seem an impossible task, it is exactly the core mission of fisheries managers, who must negotiate with scientists, industry, NGOs, and various enforcement agencies to govern the living systems of the ocean. Regulating ocean resources has always been a difficult task, with mixed results depending on the model employed and the level of funding and respect given to scientific recommendations, enforcement needs, and community input. Challenges Red tape…

Judging fish and fisheries Buying seafood is easy. Sourcing seafood responsibly is not. Consumers and retailers alike must wade through growing lists of health and environmental considerations in their efforts to purchase a product that doesn’t harm the ocean: species, location, mercury content, catch method, farm type. Eco-labels were designed to simplify the process by doing the vetting for us. But judging fish isn’t easy, and these programs are fraught with design and execution flaws that severely limit the effectiveness of the whole movement.…

Feeding the hungry The challenges of developing-nation fisheries look very different from those of their commercially developed brethren. They are pulled into a maelstrom of multiple forces: Local “fishers” who use cyanide and dynamite to kill and catch fish wreak enormous damage on reefs and coastlines. The best and high-value fish of these fisheries are whisked off to higher-paying customers in developed nations, creating food security challenges. Additionally, certification programs require fish stock assessments based on data that most small nations can’t afford. The…

Why story matters to the ocean Eating fish these days is a game of bait and switch: what you think you’re buying isn’t what you get. Between a third and three-quarters of seafood is mislabeled in North America, meaning the fish isn’t the species described on the menu or wasn’t caught where it was supposedly landed. But the real victim of seafood fraud and mislabeling is not the consumer; it’s the ocean. If we can’t build a global market in which responsibly harvested fish…

The blue revolution Aquaculture has been around for millennia. But aquaculture as an industrial food system is in its adolescence, suffering from major growing pains. The industry has the potential to mature into the most sustainable food production system on the planet—the science and technology are there. Significant social, cultural, and policy barriers must be overcome by developing new markets, new approaches to investment, and new distribution systems. Challenges In Asia, people have traditionally raised fish and shrimp in ditches alongside rice paddies or…

Five core business functions of robust end-to-end traceability Reports of overfishing, Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) activities, human rights abuses, and fraud continue to tarnish the reputation of the global seafood industry. At the same time, companies practicing environmental and social responsibility are not rewarded for their efforts. Traceability is often held up as the answer to this broken system, but traceability tends to mean different things to different people, and rarely is deployed as a full-chain solution. Through years of engagement with seafood…