Barcelona, Spain – At Seafood Expo Global, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) today announced the 15th anniversary of FishSource, SFP’s platform to identify source fish stocks and fisheries, know how well the fishery is managed and its status, and understand supply risks, including environment and labor issues. SFP also announced that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is adopting the standards used in FishSource to establish unique, standardized IDs for all of the world’s major fisheries.
“We need to know the source stock and fishery of a product to determine seafood sustainability. And for 15 years, SFP has been systematically doing this for the seafood industry with our tools and services,” said Braddock Spear, global policy director at SFP. “With the FAO’s collaboration with FishSource, soon the entire supply chain can use the same IDs and codes and know we are talking about the same stocks and fisheries.”
The universal FAO IDs will be publicly available and ensure discussion across industry, governments, NGOs, and others is about the same fisheries and stocks. The IDs will standardize data collection since they will not change. They will also be available to organizations to inform their reporting and recommendations for achieving global targets, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and SFP’s Target 75.
“The FAO’s new IDs will fundamentally transform the entire seafood supply chain and change the seafood industry forever,” continued Spear. “Information will flow more freely across the industry, transparency of sourcing will be strengthened, government data collection systems will be improved, and small-scale fisheries will get an identity on equal footing to large industrial fisheries.”
SFP created and launched FishSource 15 years ago at Seafood Expo in Brussels, in response to the demand by major seafood buyers for up-to-date information on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture regions. Now, FishSource is the world’s best source of timely and actionable information on fisheries. Since 2007, FishSource has helped hundreds of retailers, food service providers, brands, and seafood companies globally identify the sources and risks of their seafood.
FishSource also drives SFP’s Seafood Metrics and the Ocean Disclosure Project. Combined, SFP’s tools and technologies provide solutions for seafood buyers and companies to understand the sustainability of their seafood sources; identify improvement needed in fisheries and farming regions; monitor progress towards environmental and social commitments; report sourcing and progress; and communicate their impact to consumers.