SFP Updated Strategy
All Hands on Deck
An updated strategy to scale-up our impact.
SFP has been working on fisheries and aquaculture improvement for nearly 20 years. In these two decades, we have seen tremendous successes in many of the world’s most important fisheries and aquaculture regions. But despite this progress, many challenges still remain.
As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we are also looking forward, at what it will take to achieve a world where everyone has access to responsibly sourced and produced seafood. To achieve this goal, we are launching an updated strategy focused on impact, collaborative fisheries management, and industry leadership.
We’re calling this strategy “All Hands on Deck,” because we know we can’t do it alone. So we’re building a coalition of like-minded industry leaders, NGOs, governments, scientists, and other stakeholders to join us for the next 20 years.
On this page, you will find a link to our updated strategy and a series of FAQs about the strategy and our plans moving forward. If you have any questions about the strategy or would like to discuss anything further, please reach out to SFP.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our new strategy: All Hands on Deck
- Strengthening industry leadership: Long-term change is only possible if the seafood industry is on board – and by industry we mean everyone from small-scale fishers to global retailers.
- Institutionalizing collaborative fisheries management: This involves greater involvement of industry in fisheries management, alongside governments and other stakeholders.
- A focus on impact: Defining success by real, measurable impacts on the water, rather than achieving goals like certification or completing time-bound improvement projects.
Every five years we take a look at where we are and where we’re going. Our previous 5-year strategy wrapped up in 2025, prompting a strategic reassessment. What we’ve found is that, though there have been tremendous successes in sustainable seafood over the last decade, significant problems remain. Many fish stocks are still low or dropping, protected species are still being unintentionally caught and killed by fishing gear, and social issues are as prevalent as ever. Looking to the future, our thinking on – and approach to – seafood sustainability must evolve to meet these persistent challenges.
Because we cannot do this alone. Achieving 100% sustainable fisheries will require a global coalition of governments, industry, NGOs, scientists, and other stakeholders. We know that the only lasting solutions come from working together – so we need all hands on deck!
Collaborative fisheries management
- Help count fish: Fishers, processors, and exporters can help collect and share data to improve stock assessments, decision making, and protected area design.
- Help regulate fisheries: Fishers, processors, and exporters – who know the fishery best – can actively participate in the design of fishery regulations and management measures.
- Help enforce compliance: This is where end buyers can step in, to support, incentivize, and encourage all the businesses in their supply chains to comply with regulations
Collaborative fisheries management is continuous, structured industry participation in fisheries management, with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and financing arrangements. Unlike certification schemes or fishery improvement projects (FIPs), which often have a targeted end date, collaborative fisheries management is long-term and ongoing. This is not a new concept – it is already happening in fisheries around the world. Our goal is to work with partners and stakeholder groups to formalize these efforts and get them replicated more widely.
Collaborative fisheries management is not about replacing governments. It is about making governments more effective by mobilizing industry as a co-investor and co-manager in fisheries governance.
Governments are still essential for setting and enforcing rules, granting rights, and providing an enabling legal and economic framework. However, many governments lack the necessary resources or capacity to effectively manage every fishery. Collaborative fisheries management seeks to capitalize on the strengths and resources of all stakeholders to ensure the most effective fisheries management and give producer country governments an opportunity to be recognized partners in a global movement toward more responsible fisheries governance.
Under collaborative fisheries management, industry can contribute meaningfully in three key areas:
It doesn’t! Both approaches are multi-stakeholder, bringing together governments, the private sector, communities, and NGOs to collaborate, coordinate, and implement actions for positive impact. And both approaches aim for large-scale, long-term improvements.
Impact, not certification
- Ensuring abundant fisheries: Fish populations that are healthy, plentiful, and not compromised by human activity.
- Promoting healthy ecosystems: Including protecting ocean wildlife and ocean habitats, and safeguarding coastal habitats.
- Supporting resilient communities: Empowering fishing communities to participate in decision making, improve their livelihoods, and become environmental stewards.
Yes, in a way. While certification is an important milestone and a useful way to identify fisheries that are actively working on improvements, in many cases certification programs are not resulting in sustained positive impacts where they are needed most. Too often, a fishery reaches the goal of certification and then the stakeholders who worked to get it there declare victory and move on. But fisheries are dynamic systems and we need to continue paying attention. Lasting change requires long-term, institutionalized collaborative fisheries management embedded in policy and business models.
SFP believes that efforts to improve fisheries should be evaluated solely by the impact they have and the results they deliver – on the water, at the aquaculture farm, for the ecosystem, in the community. Our FishSource database monitors progress of fisheries, through a range of indicators, including management quality, ecosystem impacts, social benefits, and human rights. And with SFP’s Seafood Metrics system, seafood buyers can evaluate their specific source fisheries based on FishSource and other data.
We center our approach around three main areas of impact:
It means you’re on the right track. These fisheries have all the ingredients in place to implement collaborative management. They already have an aligned set of stakeholders and an identified improvement pathway, they are already collecting and sharing information, and retailers are already buying from them. So certified fisheries and those in FIPs are great candidates for this new approach – and many of them have already embraced it.
Specific roles for the seafood sector
All stakeholders have a role to play in collaborative fisheries management and shifting the focus of success to impact. This section provides brief examples of roles and responsibilities for various parties. For more details on what collaborative fisheries management means for specific actors, reach out to SFP. And watch this space for specific FAQs relating to different audiences.
In the immediate term, for SFP Partners and other progressive companies, collaborative fisheries management means continue doing what you are already doing: maintain and report on your existing commitments, track risk within your supply chains (irrespective of certification), and support improvement work.
Looking to the future, it means shifting focus toward longer-term improvements and impact. It means realizing that your involvement in a fishery does not end when certification is achieved, that is just a milestone along the way. It is important to stay involved and make sure suppliers stay involved. This will principally involve adjusting and expanding commitments to promote collaborative fisheries management, encouraging your suppliers to participate in such efforts and monitoring their contributions, and ensuring that your supply chain is in compliance with fishery regulations in the countries they operate in or buy from.
Many of our Partners and other major buyers have time-bound sustainability commitments relating to certification and improvement, and have made tremendous progress in meeting those commitments. Collaborative fisheries management is the next chapter, shifting focus toward longer-term improvements and impact. As SFP has supported you in this first part of the journey, we will continue to provide support, tools, and resources for the next phase.
Some mid-supply chain companies are already leading contributors to collaborative fisheries management, but a shift is needed to recruit more suppliers around the world. Over time, the role of suppliers will include educating producer-country stakeholders on what is needed to build out collaborative fisheries management, providing resources and incentives to supply chains and fishers to transition to a collaborative fisheries management model, and evaluating progress and reporting to buyers and other stakeholders.
Some members of the catch sector are already engaged in collaborative fisheries management. But a shift is needed to ensure that fishers, processors, and exporters work more effectively with domestic governments. While specifics for small-scale vs. industrial producers will differ, over time their key roles will include organizing and building shared capacity to contribute to collaborative fisheries management, collecting and sharing data with governments, and actively participating in policy design and management decision making.
Next steps
In 2026, we will publish a discussion paper with more details on collaborative fisheries management and the roles of industry. We will also be compiling a library of examples of collaborative fisheries management that are happening around the world, to show that it works and inspire scaling up of the approach. And, with our Partners, we will be developing a system for evaluating supplier contributions to collaborative fisheries management and ways to communicate and promote industry’s role.
In tandem with these products, we will be building a global coalition of like-minded companies, NGOs, FIP implementers, governments, funders, and others working on or interested in pursuing collaborative fisheries management. This year of coalition building and drumming up support for collaborative fisheries management will culminate in an event in early 2027 to highlight coalition members’ experiences and inspire other companies and supply chains to join our collective efforts.
Join us!
If you would like to join us on All Hands on Deck, or have any questions about the strategy or our approach, please reach out to SFP.