For a country like Japan that boasts one the largest seafood consumption footprints in the world, promoting the sustainability of the seafood industry is critical to the health of the oceans and those who depend on them for their livelihood.
On November 14th, WWF-Japan hosted its first Sustainable Seafood Hotel Roundtable to better understand how the hospitality industry can come together pre-competitively to support a more sustainable and responsible seafood availability in the country.
Over the past three years, WWF has helped lead the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) to help establish the first-ever comprehensive industry standards for seafood traceability. With more than five dozen companies from around the world and across seafood supply chains sitting at the table, the GDST is drafting standards that will dramatically improve the efficiency, reliability, and affordability of tracking seafood, helping businesses obtain and share the information they need about the origins of seafood products. That will lead to more transparent and reliable seafood supply chains, as consumers increasingly demand and as governments increasingly require.
Are you a FisheryProgress subscriber who follows fishery improvement project (FIP)? Can’t wait to see how your favorite FIPs are coming along? If so, you’re in luck! If so, you will soon receive the latest updates directly to your inbox. Starting October 31st, users following FIPs listed on FisheryProgress will receive monthly emails highlighting major changes in those FIPs.
Despite the acute political situation in 2018, which left Nicaragua on its knees both socially and economically, the resilient fishing communities together with the government continued to prioritize the preservation of the spiny lobster, and to drive it towards Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification with the active support of WWF and its corporate partners in the US.
With an average annual catch of 50,000 metric tons and more than 4,200 fishers, Mahi-Mahi is one of Peru’s most important artisanal fisheries. WWF and its partners have been supporting this Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) since 2013.
This video takes us on a tour inside capacity-building workshops in La Tortuga, La Islilla, and San Jose, where fishing cooperatives, which recently received Mahi-Mahi fishing permits, are being trained on the use of a smart application for documenting landings using mobile phones.
Do you know what seafood you are serving at your restaurant? Can you accurately tell apart the species displayed at your supermarket? Are you certain there are no at-risk fish or crustaceans in your supply chain? Think twice, before sourcing certain types of seafood. They might be one or more of the 400 endangered marine species linked to human consumption.
Several endangered marine species continue to make their way to the global market. With fragmented and weakly regulated supply chains and the near impossibility to identify species once processed, seafood buyers are faced with the daunting task of accurately selecting and responsibly sourcing their products. Fortunately, WWF has developed a simplified and practical guide identifying endangered species most commonly found in seafood supply chains and offering recommendations to help companies make informed choices in procuring seafood.
As a global hospitality brand, Hyatt has more than 850 properties in 60 countries across six continents. Brands with vast international portfolios, like Hyatt, can use their influence to source seafood that is sustainably caught or responsibly farmed to benefit the environment and local communities in which they operate, and preserve the natural resources that support their business.
At WWF, working with large multinational businesses to transition supply chains to more responsible operations helps support food systems that better conserve nature and feed the world. Since 2012, Hyatt has worked with WWF to increase its sustainable seafood offering throughout its global operations
Encouraged by long term WWF efforts, two of Chile’s leading salmon farming companies have announced, early June, their intention to discontinue all activities in the southern lakes of the country.
Los Fiordos, one of the major salmon producers, had previously suspended all operations in this freshwater system. Following their merger with Aquachile, they decided to maintain this commitment, and have publicly announced their move out of the lakes. A pledge that was matched by another key producer, Multiexport, which will also cease all production in the area by 2020.
Just over four years ago, WWF-UK kicked off a new and ambitious business partnership, collaborating with the seafood company Thai Union, with the shared aim of improving the environmental sustainability of seafood supply chains in Europe.
Our journey started with the signing of WWF’s Seafood Charter, which contains a set of principles and steps aimed at guiding the industry towards tackling key challenges, including ensuring seafood is traceable, increasing transparency and implementing projects to reduce the impact of fishing practices on the environment. Thai Union’s sustainability commitments have since grown with the launch of their global SeaChange® sustainability strategy, through which the company has committed to source its branded tuna from fisheries that are either Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified or engaged in fishery improvement projects aimed at meeting the MSC.
Picture this: it’s summertime and you are enjoying a plate of Old Bay-smothered crab cakes at a seaside restaurant in Maryland. You might assume that the crab meat on your plate was sourced locally, considering the blue crab is a well-known Maryland symbol, and a powerful icon of much of the mid-Atlantic region. Pre-1990s, that assumption would most likely be correct. The Chesapeake blue crab fishery was the most valuable fishery in the Bay at the time and it met most of the demand for the species in the region. In fact, until the 1990s, most crab meat consumed in the United States came from domestic sources. This all changed when the major domestic blue crab fisheries, like those in the Chesapeake Bay, were overfished to the brink of collapse – in large part due to a lack of sustainable fishery management.
