Year in Review

Highlights from 2022

Celebrating a culture of innovation at SFP

The new publication from SFP highlights our history of innovation in the sustainable seafood sector, from how we work with the seafood industry to the science, data, and information tools we created to support our goal of a world where the oceans are healthy and 100 percent of seafood is produced sustainably. This document also serves as our 2021-22 annual report.

FishSource turns 15 and begins collaboration with UN FAO

2022 was the 15th anniversary of the development of FishSource, SFP’s one-of-a-kind online resource that helps users identify, understand, and assess source fish stocks and fisheries. The year brought exciting developments and recognition of FishSource’s value and achievements:

School of fish

Expanding our partnerships

In 2022, we announced several new or expanded partnerships, including:

  • Aldi Nord, with supermarkets throughout Europe
  • Aldi Sud, expansion of the existing partnership
  • Migros, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain
  • Thai Union Group, the world’s third-largest seafood company.
Meet our Partners

Protecting Ocean Wildlife

At Seafood Expo North America in Boston, we hosted a Bycatch Solutions Open House to highlight the latest gear innovations and bycatch solutions for addressing fisheries interactions with endangered, threatened, and protected species.

We unveiled our new Solve My Bycatch Problem tool, an online interactive tool to evaluate methods to reduce wildlife bycatch in tuna longline fisheries.

We also worked with Birdlife International and Whale and Dolphin Conservation to complete bycatch audits of the risks to ocean wildlife in the fisheries that supply seafood to our partners Co-op, Tesco, and Publix.

Supporting Small-Scale Fishers

We worked with the Dolphinfish Research Program, artisanal fishers, and research institutions in Peru and Ecuador on a pilot tagging project that targeted mahi-mahi in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, to increase scientific understanding about the mahi population in the region.

The Indonesian Blue Swimming Crab (BSC) Fishers Communication Forum (Forkom Nelangsa) released a video on how fishers can get out of debt. The forum, which was created with the support of SFP, provides a mechanism for BSC fishers in Indonesia to share information and participate in decision making.

Improving Fisheries Management

We are supporting the creation of Better Seafood Philippines (BSP), building on the USAID Fish Right program. BSP uses market influence to support small-scale fishers and combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by promoting transparent and sustainable seafood production and sourcing at all levels of the Philippines seafood supply chain.

We supported the development of a new fishery improvement project (FIP) for Argentine shortfin squid, one of the largest squid fisheries in the world. The FIP is led by CAPA (the Argentine Chamber of Jigger Fishing Vessels Shipowners) and was developed with the support of six international squid buyers, all members of SFP’s Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable.

Promoting Sustainable Aquaculture

New research from SFP’s aquaculture team shows that landscape-level aquaculture management can contribute to the conservation and regeneration of mangrove forests, helping preserve the wealth of ecosystem services that mangroves provide and presenting a huge opportunity for the farmed shrimp industry to help bring back lost mangrove habitat.

SFP and the Asian Farmed Shrimp Supply Chain Roundtable (SR) presented a three-part webinar series on aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs), sharing knowledge and lessons from a decade of developing and implementing AIPs as a way to increase supply chain security and climate change resilience, and support small-scale farmers.

Supply Chain Roundtables and Innovation

“Crossing the Chasm,” a four-part Seafood Source series features interviews with key SR players about how they are pushing for wider adoption of sustainable practices in the global seafood industry.

Supply Chain Roundtables bring industry together for sustainability

Our Supply Chain Roundtables (SRs) continued to actively advocate for change in 2022:

Mexican shrimp

Five members of the Mexican Shrimp SR completed audits for the 2021-22 Pacific shrimp season, according to the requirements of SR membership. The audits focus on improving compliance with existing regulation through the implementation of control documents for US importers of Mexican Pacific wild shrimp, and are one of the most stringent within the industry.

Global Squid SR

A group of 16 squid buyers and importers from North America and Europe, all members of SFP’s Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable (SR), are working together as the Squid IUU Prevention Group to drive improvements in squid fisheries and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) squid fishing.

Aerial view of shrimp farming in Thailand

We launched a revamped Asian Farmed Shrimp SR this year with a new logo, new participants, and a new mandate to support the uptake of aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs) throughout the aquaculture sector. The participants are now contributing financially to the running of the SR and development of a roadmap for activity.

long line tuna

We phased out our Global Longline Tuna SR this year, as part of a new collaboration between SFP and the Global Tuna Alliance. Through this agreement, 14 companies from the SR joined the GTA, which will take the lead on supporting industry with advocacy-related work with regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), while SFP focuses on working with companies to reduce the bycatch of endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) species in tuna fisheries.

Fresh seafood counter in supermarket

SR Industry Co-Chairs

SR industry chairs work closely with SFP leads to set priorities, drive progress, recruit participants and seek funding. In 2022, we welcomed new industry chairs to three of our SRs:

SFP Supply Chain Roundtables

SFP science and research support seafood sustainability

SFP has always been grounded in science-based research and solutions. In 2022, we continued to expand the science on seafood sustainability.

Sector Sustainability Update Octopus
Sector Sustainability Updates

We released a revised set of our annual Sector Sustainability Updates, summarizing progress so far in each Target 75 sector against the 75-percent sustainable goal, along with highlights on the most recent trends in production and trade and additional sustainability challenges.

Marine Biology Research

Our Science Team published a study in the journal Marine Biology Research, finding that fishery improvement projects need to improve their workplans to better address bycatch of endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) species.

Reduction fisheries report 2022 pt 1

The 13th edition of our sustainability overview of reduction fisheries showed that, although most of the evaluated fisheries have maintained their management and stock status performance and continue to be reasonably well-managed, overall sustainability performance in the sector continues to decrease, with more fisheries dropping into the poorly managed category.

Marine Policy

Our Fisheries Team published a paper in the journal Marine Policy on the economics of jumbo flying squid (JFS) fisheries, showing that a lack of formal recognition of Peruvian artisanal squid fishers leads to a reduction in benefits compared to neighboring JFS fishers in Chile.

SENA 2022

Seafood Shows

SFP staffers returned to Seafood Expo North America in Boston and Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, where our team hosted Supply Chain Roundtable meetings, participated in panels, and had an opportunity to renew old contacts and make new ones after two years of canceled shows due to the pandemic. We also sent a small group to Seafood Expo Asia in Singapore for the first time, where we hosted a workshop on seafood sustainability.

SFP at the Seafood Shows

Learn more about SFP

Contact us to learn more about SFP’s progress in improving the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture around the world.