Sustainable seafood, a category that includes Idaho-raised rainbow trout, is in demand by some of the world’s largest retailers, including Wal-Mart, a University of Idaho agricultural economist notes.
“The challenge for fishermen, fisheries management agencies, aquaculturists and retailers alike, however, is ensuring progress on the goal of achieving sustainable production for both wild-caught and farm-raised seafood globally, including in developing countries,” said Cathy A. Roheim, UI Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Moscow.
“Fishery improvement projects (FIPS) are powerful tools for bringing retailers and the rest of the market supply chain to the table to improve fisheries and their management,” Roheim said. “We’re cautiously optimistic that FIPs can deliver on their promises of sustainable fisheries, especially in developing countries.”
She is a co-author of a report in the May 1 issue of the journal Science that examines the effectiveness of fisheries improvement projects in developing countries. The 11-author team was led by Gabriel S. Sampson and James N. Sanchirico of the University of California-Davis.
Fishery improvement projects have been developed to get fisheries on a path to sustainability and potential certification by the Marine Stewardship Council. These projects involve partnerships between the fishermen and firms up and down the international seafood supply chain.
A critical objective of the partnerships is to create market incentives for continual improvements by allowing seafood from developing countries’ fisheries to enter the potentially more lucrative export market for certified seafood.
Roheim has spent much of her career understanding how market forces influence fisheries regulation and aquaculture production and how they can be used to create incentives to promote sustainable seafood production.
Idaho’s valuable trout farming industry produces the majority of rainbow trout sold to restaurants and supermarkets in the U.S. Idaho trout has been certified as sustainable and recognized by environmental groups such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which has a large influence on food service, restaurant and supermarkets’ buying choices in the U.S., Roheim said.
Roheim served on the scientific advisory board for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program from 2011-14.
Retailers like Wal-Mart in the U.S. and Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom have promised that soon all the fresh, frozen, farmed and wild seafood they sell will come from sustainable sources. Respected private third-party certifying programs like the Marine Stewardship Council are helping to ensure compliance with meaningful sustainability standards designed to help conserve fish populations and protect oceans.
While commercial fisheries in the developed world have met many of the sustainability standards, fisheries overseen by developing countries make up only 7 percent of Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries, even though these developing-country fisheries account for about half of all seafood entering the international market.
That is the major focus of the report in Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the world’s top general science publications.
Sampson and colleagues report that seafood from two-thirds of developing-world fisheries enrolled in fishery improvement projects are already being bought by retailers, intending to satisfy their sustainability commitments while making little progress in improving their management.
“Strict adherence to conditional market access on continued improvements transparently monitored by independent third parties, or withdrawal of market access if targets are not met in a timely manner, would likely lead to more durable conservation and greater assurance for consumers that marketing claims of ‘sustainable’ seafood are valid,” Roheim said.
The report resulted from a workshop that Roheim and her fellow authors were invited to participate in that was sponsored by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in June 2014. The Packard Foundation has been a contributor to organizations working to create sustainable fisheries and aquaculture globally.
About the University of Idaho
The University of Idaho helps students to succeed and become leaders. Its land-grant mission furthers innovative scholarly and creative research to grow Idaho's economy and serve a statewide community. From its main campus in Moscow, Idaho, to 70 research and academic locations statewide, U-Idaho emphasizes real-world application as part of its student experience. U-Idaho combines the strength of a large university with the intimacy of small learning communities. It is home to the Vandals. For information, visit www.uidaho.edu.
Source: University of Idaho
