The Fisheye

In December, our team members Iván and Diego were in Chile to witness a momentous event: the journey of a crate of fish from San Antonio to Santiago. This one small transaction may be only a 70 mile journey for the fish, but it reflects a giant step in our work to test new models to support fishing communities and sustainable fisheries around the world.

Peruvian cuisine is synonymous with seafood. From ceviche to arroz con mariscos to grilled octopus, seafood is one area where local ingredients—and chefs—truly shine. What may come as a surprise is that despite the deep love of seafood, sustainable and traceable seafood movements are still very nascent in Peru.

It's the Information Age. And, if you, like us, wonder how developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) can help advance sustainability and traceability in small-scale fisheries...then read on! FishWise and Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT) Project Director Traci Linder and Future of Fish (FoF) Traceability Program Director Fiona Mulligan recently attended the ICT4Fisheries 2019 conference and came away with five top learnings we found repeated across geographies and cultures.

In our last blog post, we looked at five ways that climate change threatens fish and the people that rely on them for their livelihoods. Since then, the IPCC released its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, which paints an alarming picture for our ocean. The flipside is that it’s not too late to make systemic, meaningful change to limit greenhouse gas emissions and contain the negative impacts of climate change. In fact, given the gravity of the situation, systemic approaches are more needed than ever to tackle this challenge. This week we look at innovations and initiatives that mitigate and reduce climate impacts to oceans, fisheries, and coastal communities.

Sometimes, when solving problems in complex systems, designing simple solutions can work best. One year after we hosted a panel on blended finance and fisheries at SOCAP (the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco), we will be returning to this conference with a refined perspective on blended finance, and share what we’ve learned first-hand in Peru, Chile and Belize for keeping blended finance simple.