A recent study published in Marine Policy indicates that pre-competitive collaborations like SeaBOS are likely having an impact on seafood sustainability beyond the companies that take part in the collaboration.
SeaBOS – which stands for Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship – launched in 2016 as a means of promoting and improving the sustainability in the seafood industry. Member companies include Maruha Nichiro, Nippon Suisan, Thai Union, Dongwon Industries, Nutreco, Cargill Animal Nutrition, Cermaq, and Charoen Pokphand Foods.
The organization released its first progress report in 2022 showcasing member progress on a number of key initiatives, including new software to tackle bycatch, a risk-mapping tool for labor abuse and illegal fishing, and an initiative on how to better trigger positive change beyond just SeaBOS member companies.
The new study, “Exploring evidence of cascading change towards stewardship in the Japanese seafood industry,” examined whether those efforts were bearing any fruit and how much progress the industry is making in terms of sustainability.
“There is a growing global demand for a more sustainable seafood industry, and pre-competitive initiatives have emerged on multiple continents to meet this demand,” the study states. “Such initiatives could have ‘cascading effects,’ suggesting that their impacts may extend beyond their direct participants to effect broader, industry-wide change.”
Until now, those cascading effects have been largely hypothetical, and little research has been conducted on whether the goals of SeaBOS and other pre-competitive collaborations are achievable.
According to the study, evidence shows SeaBOS’s hypothesis had some merit.
“Due to the inherent complexity of the seafood industry, determining whether the SeaBOS initiative has triggered cascading effects or industry-level transformation is challenging,” the study said. “However, there are indications of cascading stewardship effects: SeaBOS member companies have been early movers in the Japanese seafood industry, and other companies have followed similar pathways.”
The study selected 17 different Japanese companies to analyze for the study. All had been operating for at least 70 years, including large trading companies like Mitsubishi and smaller domestic companies like Maruichi Sansho. It then determined different public data sources on environmental factors – such as sustainability and environmental reports – and mapped out potential factors that could affect Japanese companies’ sustainability engagement.
Through examining actions taken by the companies both inside and outside SeaBOS, the study determined that, typically, companies in the collaboration would be leaders in the sustainability movement, and other companies were likely to follow.
However, the study also identified that it is difficult to definitely determine if SeaBOS was the reason behind the shifts in sustainability and that further studies and continuous monitoring are required to fully evaluate its impacts.
It also said that while the largest companies in the collaboration are helping to push for sustainability, transformative change will still be limited without government regulations and economic incentives.
The study also called for more transparent disclosure of environmental initiatives and sustainability to help understand overall sustainability performance.
“For example, Nissui and Maruha Nichiro conducted surveys on the resource status of the marine products they handle, providing valuable insights into their performance throughout the supply chain,” the study said. “Increased disclosure from other companies would also facilitate monitoring and promoting corporate sustainability at the industry level.”
Despite the difficulty identifying the exact impact of SeaBOS, the study did determine Japan’s seafood industry has made great progress in sustainability.
“This study has documented an emerging sustainable seafood movement in Japan during the last decade,” the study states. “The movement is diverse in scope and appears to be slowly gathering momentum across a range of issues and types of corporations.”
