A fishery improvement project for Chinese squid was formally launched at the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo in Qingdao, China, on 6 November.
Industry partners and non-governmental organizations have already put more than three years of work into the creation of the East China Sea and Yellow Sea Squid Fishery Improvement Project. Founded by Ocean Outcomes, Sea Farms, and PanaPesca, the FIP now includes Quirch Foods, Seachill, and China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association (CAPPMA) as well as retailers Marks and Spencer, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s. The local Chinese suppliers involved are Genho, IG, and the Zhejiang Industry Group.
The five-year precompetitive fisheries improvement project (FIP) aims to improve the management and fishing practices of Chinese trawl, purse seine, and gillnet vessels targeting Japanese flying squid. The fishery accounts for around 30,000 metric tons of squid annually. In addition to supply the domestic market in China, squid from the fishery are also sent to other Asian countries, the European Union, and North America.
Cui He, secretary general of CAPPMA, a Chinese national seafood industry lobby, said the creation of the FIP shows CAPPMA and China are committed to both domestic and global seafood sustainability.
“Around a third to half of all squid passes through a Chinese seafood supply chain, whether caught, processed, traded, or consumed,” Cui said. “It’s in our interest to ensure a future where all squid stocks are healthy. This project will help us explore a path forward.”
The FIP’s improvement work plan aims to establish science-based stock assessments and bycatch monitoring protocols as well as traceability systems to verify and track locations of harvest, according to Songlin Wang, the director of Ocean Outcomes’ China program. Songlin said China lacks a Japanese flying squid-specific harvest strategy, outside of a summer fishing moratorium banning the use of motorized fishing vessels.
“Compared with many species, squid sustainability efforts are lagging,” Wang said. “Also, it’s difficult to verify the exact catch locations for some squid products from the region.”
The success of the project was partially credited to precompetitive collaboration at meeting of the Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable in March at the 2018 Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
And while a report from Sustainable Fisheries Partnership published in January 2018 showed vast sustainability gap in squid fishing, the East China Sea and Yellow Sea Squid Fishery Improvement Project is the second squid-focused FIP to be announced in 2018.
The Shantou Taiwan Common Squid FIP was announced in March and is being facilitated by the China Blue Sustainability Institute, with financial backing from Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.-based Beaver Street Fisheries.
Photo courtesy of Ocean Outcomes
