This guide was created to help orient the seafood industry toward the main tools and resources for a variety of environmental and social topics. It also lists tools in development to help NGOs, academics, and others collaborate pre-competitively, align their efforts, and limit redundancy in the creation of future initiatives.
Numerous helpful tools and resources exist, many created by Alliance Global Hub members. However, we have intentionally kept this list focused. Please note that while the Alliance has compiled this guide, the inclusion of a given tool or resource does not equal endorsement, nor is it intended to be a recommendation of one program over another.
When companies are ready to expand their learning and engage with these topics more deeply, we encourage them to join our free Global Hub to help inform Alliance strategy and projects and gain access to our online community of experts.
Topics include:
AQUACULTURE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS (AIPS)
I’m interested in…
Learning more about the fundamentals of AIPs
- The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership AIP Directory hosts an introduction to AIPs along with an AIP Toolkit and directory for those interested in starting or finding aquaculture improvement projects.
Understanding new tools under development
- The Aquaculture Governance Indicators provide insight into how governments, industry, and civil society groups can make improvements towards sustainable aquaculture.
CLIMATE CHANGE
I’m interested in…
Learning about the intersection of climate change and seafood
- Explore the Our Shared Seas website that discusses why climate change is a threat to ocean health.
DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY
I’m interested in…
Disclosing my company’s seafood sources
- The Ocean Disclosure Project enables seafood businesses to demonstrate their commitment to transparency and responsible sourcing of seafood by disclosing annual sourcing details of their seafood production for an annual fee.
- FishChoice.com allows fishery improvement projects to report on their progress (as noted in the FIP section), and allows companies to publish sustainability information about the products they sell.
- The Sourcing Transparency Platform (STP), an initiative of the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF), allows companies to upload sourcing information directly onto the STP, publicly disclosing important information regarding their fish sourcing activities, social responsibility policies and due diligence actions.
Advocating for government action on fisheries transparency
- Encourage governments to participate in the Fisheries Transparency Initiative, which supports coastal countries to enhance the credibility and quality of national fisheries information.
FISHERY IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS (FIPS)
I’m interested in…
Learning more about the fundamentals of successful FIPs
- The Guidelines for Supporting Fishery Improvement Projects provide an overview of the structure and process for FIPs and were adopted as the basis for FisheryProgress.org.
- FIPTraining.org is a training program to provide fishery stakeholders worldwide with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and implement FIPs.
- Sustainable Fisheries Partnership maintains a FIP Toolkit that provides general guidance on how to initiate and run FIPs, as well as templates and examples of documentation, and also provide a FIP Evaluation Tool.
Incorporating social and financial responsibility into a FIP
- The Triple Impact Fisheries Evaluation Framework provides a structure for designing and implementing fishery improvement plans that account for social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Gaining recognition for a Fishery Improvement Project
- FisheryProgress.org provides access to consistent information about FIP progress, detailed evidence for improvements, and the ability to report against the new Social Responsibility Policy.
HUMAN RIGHTS
I’m interested in…
Learning more about human rights issues in seafood
- The Roadmap for Improving Seafood Ethics (RISE) is a project of FishWise that helps companies to focus on salient issues in seafood, implement human rights due diligence, and ultimately create the conditions for decent work across the seafood industry. RISE focuses on Responsible Recruitment, Worker Engagement, and Decent Work at Sea as essential building blocks of any social responsibility program.
Learning more about how social responsibility is defined
- The Monterey Framework provides a definition of sustainable seafood for company commitments that The Monterey Framework provides a definition of sustainable seafood for company commitments that encompasses both environmental and social responsibility.
Assessing social responsibility risk in FIPs or other production
- The Social Responsibility Assessment Tool for the Seafood Sector assesses the risk of social issues, identifies areas for improvement, and informs the development of FIPs that include social improvement. Additional implementation toolkits and videos can be found on the RISE website.
Learning more about what other companies are doing
- The World Benchmarking Alliance Seafood Stewardship Index measures how the world’s 30 leading seafood companies are implementing social responsibility practices in seafood.
Understanding new tools under development
- The Decent Work in Fisheries Initiative aims to identify relationships between working conditions and forced labor. Recognizing enabling conditions and taking early action could protect fishers against more severe types of human rights abuses.
- The Certification and Ratings Collaboration is exploring the concept of a Social Data Tool to complement their Sustainable Seafood Data Tool.
- The Seafood Slavery Risk Tool provides information on risks of forced labor, human trafficking, and hazardous child labor of seafood value chains using evidence and intelligence from credible sources including peer-reviewed publications, investigative articles, and national and international indices and reports, among others.
This is only a brief list of tools available on human and labor rights and social responsibility. Please see RISE for a more exhaustive list, and contact FishWise to have your tool listed on the RISE site.
ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED, AND UNREGULATED FISHING (IUU)
I’m interested in…
Learning more about IUU fishing
- The FAO hosts general information, tools, news, and resources for organizations interested in learning more about IUU fishing.
- The Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT) is implemented by FishWise and provides an online hub and stage for sharing seafood traceability and IUU fishing knowledge from around the world. The SALT community, through collaboration, helps spark creative solutions for legal and sustainable seafood.
Learning more about regulations regarding IUU fishing
- EU IUU Watch offers a broad spectrum of views on the issue of illegal fishing; how to stop it and secure the effective implementation of EU regulations to end IUU.
- In the United States, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries works to ensure that high demand for imported seafood does not create incentives for illegal fishing activity.
- The Pew Charitable Trusts has an informative set of issue briefs and data visualizations on the Port State Measures Agreement.
- NRDC has fact sheets on unethical seafood and how US leadership can curb illegal fishing.
- The PAS 1550 Implementation Guide aims to support buyers and supply chains exercising due diligence to avoid illegally-caught seafood.
Learning more about risk assessment
- The Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, Friends of Ocean Action, FishWise, and Global Fishing Watch are exploring the potential for an IUU Supply Chain Risk Tool in order to enable seafood companies and retailers to identify risk in their operations with one comprehensive tool.
PRECOMPETITIVE COLLABORATIONS
I’m interested in…
Learning about what pre-competitive platforms exist for seafood
- CEA’s report “The Landscape Review of Sustainable Seafood Precompetitive Collaborations” provides basic information and illustrates the breadth of different precompetitive and industry platforms focused on seafood sustainability.
SEAFOOD COMPANY SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS AND COMMITMENTS
I’m interested in…
Learning about how to create a sustainable and responsible seafood program
- The Common Vision for Sustainable Seafood describes six realistic steps companies can take to develop and implement a sustainable seafood policy.
Assessing and comparing the performance of companies’ commitments and progress
- Seafood Progress is a platform that tracks Canadian seafood businesses’ performance against their sustainable seafood commitments.
- The Seafood Stewardship Index measures how the world’s 30 leading seafood companies contribute to the sustainable management of oceans and coastal ecosystems and work to ensure responsible social practices are implemented.
- The FishChoice.com Partner Directory is a place to find sustainable sources of seafood from a variety of seafood companies, with some businesses publicly posting their sustainable seafood commitments to their FishChoice Partner profiles.
- The Greenpeace Tuna Retailer Scorecard report assesses how companies address human rights and environmental issues in their sourcing policies for tuna, both canned and fresh/frozen.
SUSTAINABILITY AND GOVERNANCE
I’m interested in…
Learning more about seafood ratings, assessments, and certifications
- Explore FishChoice.com’s Sustainable Seafood 101 page.
- The Certification and Ratings Collaboration Data Tool displays the total amount of global seafood that is rated, certified, and in improvement projects.
- FishSource is a publicly available online resource about the status of fisheries, fish stocks, and aquaculture.
Learning more about governance assessments
Learning more about ratings coalitions and benchmarks
- The Global Seafood Ratings Alliance is a network of seafood rating organizations that supports the sustainable production of seafood through environmental performance evaluations and issue salience and product promotion.
- The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative benchmarks environmental seafood certifications and aligns global efforts and resources to address seafood sustainability challenges.
- The Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative has just created a social benchmark for seafood certifications with an at-sea operations scope.
TRACEABILITY
I’m interested in…
Learning more about traceability and advocating for government action
- The Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT) is a global community that collaborates on electronic traceability solutions. SALT’s focus is on fisheries governments from countries that produce seafood. SALT encourages governments to adopt six Comprehensive Traceability Principles, which were co-designed to help users derive additional benefits for ecological, social, and economic goals. The Pathway to the Principles lays out steps and resources to carry out those principles.
- Encourage government adoption of SALT’s Comprehensive Traceability Principles, which were designed to help users get the most out of their seafood traceability programs by supporting ecological, social, and economic goals. Visit the Pathway to the Principles to discover resources to help navigate your traceability journey and make the process of creating and administering a plan to collect useful data from fishing activities easier for companies and governments alike.
Implementing globally recognized standards for traceability in my supply chain
- The Global Dialogue for Seafood Traceability is an international, business-to-business platform established to advance a unified framework for interoperable and verifiable seafood traceability. The GDST brings together more than eighty companies from around the globe and across different parts of the seafood supply chain. In March 2020, after a multi-year industry-led drafting process, the GDST released the first-ever global standard (GDST 1.0) governing information content and data formats specifically for seafood traceability systems.
