The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership announced that the global seafood industry is halfway to reaching the organization’s Target 75 goals.
SFP has been working at getting 75 percent of the world’s seafood production to either become sustainable, or to have a plan in place to steadily improve through fisheries or aquaculture improvement projects. So far, 14 percent of seafood in target 75 sectors is sustainable, 18 percent can be classified as improving, and industry stakeholders have shown strong interest in starting new FIP or AIP projects that would cover 28 percent more.
That means SFP needs to encourage just 15 percent more of the global seafood supply to strive for sustainability to reach the organization’s 2020 deadline.
The organization has managed to increase the sustainability in a number of fisheries across the globe, including the global squid fishery. SFP initially estimated just one percent of the fishery was sustainable or improving, but now one-fifth of the global fishery can be classified as sustainable or improving.
Other key improvements came to 45 different FIPs that achieved A or B ratings from the SFP, which means they’ve been making steady improvements for the past year. Those improvements might be simple, like new logbook systems, but they go a long way, said SFP CEO Jim Cannon.
“A lot of those improvements are not very ‘sexy’ at all,” he said. “But these are the building blocks upon which you ultimately do get stock recovery and better management of fishery and aquaculture practices globally, which will ultimately lead to healthier seas.”
