While small-scale fishers harvest a significant portion of global seafood’s annual catch – approximately 40 percent – programs and tools like certifications are often designed for industrial fisheries and then retrofitted for small-scale fisheries.
Community Catch was unveiled at Seafood Expo Global in 2025 to address such limitations with traditional seafood certification schemes.
SeafoodSource spoke with Community Catch Operations Manager Abbie Topping and CEO Linda Wood about the progress the nonprofit has made a year on from its unveiling and the needs they are working to address for small-scale operators in seafood supply chains.
SeafoodSource: What was the need or the opportunity you saw in creating Community Catch?
Wood: Over the last few years, we’ve seen a growing divide between large commercial fisheries and small-scale fishers in terms of access to markets. The gap is widening as markets move toward more third-party verification to demonstrate due diligence efforts around responsible sourcing. Many small-scale fisheries are left behind.
Community Catch was created to address this gap. We’re working with fisheries that are keen to engage and demonstrate their responsible sourcing principles but are struggling to engage with fishery improvement projects (FIPs) or unable to progress with certification. We’re here to focus on underlying barriers that are holding them back and give small-scale fisheries a chance to access more markets.
The challenge for many small-scale fisheries is accessibility to these existing mechanisms. They may be too complex. By this, we mean they are not designed with small-scale operations in mind and/or financially out of reach.
This can have real consequences on small-scale fisheries. If they are not engaged in a credible fishery improvement plan (FIP) or aiming for certification, markets may stop buying from them or may not consider them as a viable source of supply.
The challenge is how to help address the issues small-scale fishers face across the globe while providing an affordable and accessible model [with] a credible scheme that still meets market expectations of assurance and transparency.
Community Catch reflects a broader mindset of what responsible fishing looks like. To us, that means looking beyond a purely environmental lens. While our ecosystems and planet’s health remains critical, responsible fisheries must also consider the fisher – the people and communities behind the catch who depend on these resources.
We should look at social aspects, health and safety, labor rights, ecosystem, and the environment, as well as climate and animal welfare which are all aspects of responsible fishing.
It is not a new approach; it is similar to what's already happening in agri-aquaculture, but until now, it has not been available previously in wild fisheries. Community Catch is aiming to bring that balance into the seafood space.
Topping: As Linda mentioned, Community Catch is fundamentally designed around fishers and their community. We’re called Community Catch for a reason. While there are a couple of certification standards and verification programs in the market that are available to all types of fisheries, they have many complex barriers specific to small-scale fisheries.
The Community Catch model is built with those constraints in mind. It takes a stepwise, continuous improvement approach, combining practicality with credibility. This includes being proportionate in how assurance is delivered, using a self-assessment for the fishery client to gather all evidence prior to a third-party verification through remote, verifiable audits and onsite audits where they add value. The aim is to remove unnecessary barriers while still ensuring that responsible practices are robustly demonstrated.
SeafoodSource: Can you describe Community Catch’s structure and the process fisheries undergo to become certified or part of a FIP under your program?
Topping: The Community Catch standard is structured across eight core areas: health and safety, climate change, target species, biodiversity, animal welfare, labor rights, community development, and governance. Together, these reflect a more holistic view of responsible fishing.
For certification, fisheries must meet all minimum and target requirements. We do not certify with conditions. Successful fisheries are awarded certification for five years and are publicly listed on the Community Catch website.
For fisheries that meet all minimum requirements but are not yet meeting all target requirements, they can enter the Community Catch Fishery Improvement Process (CCFIP). These fisheries implement a time-bound action plan to address identified gaps.
Our FIP model is intentionally rigorous while remaining accessible. CCFIPs are audited annually by accredited conformity assessment bodies, and fisheries are required to demonstrate measurable progress within the first two years or they risk being removed from the program. This ensures that participation reflects genuine commitment and momentum, rather than indefinite engagement. The goal is not only to drive improvement but also to provide transparency to the market, allowing buyers and retailers to clearly see the progress a fishery is making, rather than relying solely on static assessment outcomes.
SeafoodSource: What are some of the big challenges in implementing the program at the fishery level or in the supply chain?
Wood: We expect about 80 percent of all the fisheries we work with to start in the Community Catch FIP space at least for a period of time, and there’s a couple of reasons for that. One is that many of the fisheries we'll engage with have never been part of a FIP or certification process before, so they cannot just hit the ground running. The fisheries need time and support to understand how to adapt to the processes and how to create and how to develop an action plan. If this is the case, we can’t expect fisheries to have all the evidence required for a credible program, whether that is having and verifying life jackets for all crew members or having specific vessel records.
At the same time, wild-caught fishery supply chains are less accustomed to assessing and providing evidence on the labor rights of fishermen, health and safety, animal welfare, and climate impact. These are still very new areas of focus in wild capture fisheries, so the level of maturity in these areas is very low across many global fisheries. This is a little bit of a learning curve for everyone because, again, we want to get beyond just ticking a box and ensure real market access for small-scale fishers and real supply chain control for buyers and retailers.
SeafoodSource: How would a seafood buyer engage with Community Catch?
Topping: For markets, Community Catch is designed to be transparent and easy to engage with.
Once a fishery has a decision by the conformity assessment body (CAB) – improver or certified – they will have a dedicated profile on our website, where you will be able to see information on each fishery within the Community Catch initiative.
Furthermore, we are very excited to have a formalized collaboration with FisheryProgress. This means all our FIPs will also be listed on their platform – essentially a “shop window” – increasing visibility and allowing buyers to consider Community Catch FIPs. The profile will include progress bars, basic descriptions, and more importantly links back to our website to find all essential information.
Our digital platform integrates the self-assessment and third-party verification process, so once assessments are completed by accredited CABs, the information flows directly through to the profile. Along with information on what they're catching and what fishing gear type they are using, the supporting documentation will have all the information from the CABs, including their full assessment, and indicators of progress in an easy-to-read format on key topics for the program, such as labor rights, animal welfare, and health and safety.
If a company wants to source Community Catch products, they can join as a member and engage through our chain of custody system. This provides access to verified products, the assurance and data we generate, and new sources of responsible seafood that may previously have been excluded from the market.
Ultimately, Community Catch is about removing system blockages that prevent responsible small-scale fisheries from reaching buyers. By doing so, we create value across the supply chain – from fishers through to retailers.
We are working with many global small-scale fisheries where we have buyers who would like to source local, verifiable products but are unable to do this currently. Community Catch is a good fit because we have designed an alternative, more accessible, affordable, and flexible program that focuses on removing barriers and empowering small scale fisheries to promote their social responsibility and environmental sustainability in order to gain market access.
