A Pressing Challenge for the Seafood Industry
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch© Pocket Guides are part of a growing movement to help consumers identify and choose sustainable seafood. With global overfishing leading to declining fish stocks around the world, it is important for seafood providers and consumers to have the ability to identify products from sustainable fisheries that are well managed, target abundant species, and fish or farm in environmentally friendly ways. However, there is currently no standardized, widespread method for buyers to easily trace the chain of custody of the seafood they purchase. This has led to rampant fraud within the industry including mislabeling, underreported catch, and the creation of a black market for illegally caught fish.
Existing government regulations in the United States do not require tracing and labeling systems that create a clear chain of custody that can be used to monitor fisheries and their catch. Several private organizations have created nascent tracing and certification programs, but they are localized and voluntary. A government mandated system that provides adequate financial incentives to the fishing industry would aid these efforts to ensure widespread adoption and compliance.
The primary goals of this project are to produce a comprehensive analysis of existing and possible seafood tracing systems and identify how future government policy can support a cost-effective, technologically feasible, and widely adoptable tracing system. This project will compliment Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative by providing the technical system and regulatory framework to enable consumers and businesses to make sustainable seafood choices.