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Part 2 of our series “From Management to Markets” Read Part 1 Here We last left you in Peru where our team explored two fishing communities with different cultural histories and supply chains. Both of these fishing communities had introduced self-imposed closures and put mechanisms in place to reduce unregulated and open access fishing practices in order to preserve their resources and improve community livelihoods. As part of our fishery development model we take a comprehensive look at value chains and markets. We immerse…

Seleni has been working on conservation in Mexico and northern Central America since 2013. During her time with The Nature Conservancy, she worked on various sustainable fisheries management projects including design of marine protected areas, economic alternatives, seaweed aquaculture, traceability and adaptive management framework. She has experience collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders, government agencies, NGOs, local communities and the private sector. Seleni is a currently a graduate student at the Bren School, University of California Santa Barbara pursuing a specialization in coastal…

Shannon is a seafood sustainability and business expert with over 10 years of experience in tackling complex and meaningful challenges in global seafood supply chains. Shannon works with international stakeholders to create transparent, aligned, transformative supply chains to create new market opportunities and value chain improvements. Shannon’s strategic and systems lens is grounded in operational expertise. Previously, Shannon was the President and Director of Safety and Sustainability at a seafood distribution company, where she was responsible for the performance and strategic plan of the company…

Part I of our series “From Management to Markets” Only a few hours from Lima (depending on the traffic!) lies Ancon, a small fishing port turned tourist destination, where local fishers have broken with a long-standing open-access model to set fishing closures and other self-enforced regulations as a way to preserve their resource. Further south in Marcona, another group of fishers drafted the visionary PPD (in Spanish “Programa Piloto Demostrativo: Manejo y Explotación de Recursos Bentónicos”), a powerful plan for self-management that divides up…

When the howling blizzard dropped two feet of snow on Boston, the resultant large drifts blocking the sidewalks were a perfect metaphor for our Seafood Expo North America panel topic that day: the barriers to seafood traceability technology adoption…and the strategies that can overcome them. Our colleagues from the Seafood Traceability Collaboration, along with special guest, Roxanne Nanninga from Thai Union, kicked off the session by sharing stories from the field regarding the stuck points they encountered and the potential strategies for combating such challenges in seafood traceability…

Our last trip to Belize took our Global Implementation Manager, Kaitlyn Sephton, and a film crew from University of Washington's Communication Leadership Masters program on a fishing trip with members of the National Fisher's Co-Op in Belize City. This photobook follows them on their trip to make a mini documentary about the co-op we've been working with and the fishers who make their living on the water.

Imagine a world where fisheries managers have at their fingertips access to robust, reliable catch data from the industry and scientific assessments, which they can use to analyze status of the stock, target enforcement efforts, and support seafood businesses through streamlined permitting and reporting processes. In this world, the seafood industry seamlessly and securely shares select data with governing agencies and with trading partners, improving management of stocks and gaining business efficiencies while reducing risk of IUU in their supply chain. Sound futuristic? In…

This is Part 2 in a series. For Part 1, click here. The bleary-eyed group sitting around the table in Boston, Massachusetts had just wrapped up nearly a 12 hour day of interviews. The Board Chair and Plant Manager of the National Fisher’s Co-op (NFC) in Belize were with their partners in Boston for the Seafood Expo North America. At 7pm, this moment marked more than the end of a long few days of meetings and networking—this was the end of a months-long process to select…

Most folks who visit the Mayan Riviera go there for vacation; but if you are in the business of saving fish and fishing communities, Cancun was the place to be last week- not for the beaches, but for the opportunity to attend the World Ocean Summit. This conference attracts policy makers, economists, conservation funders, and technology innovators to engage in a dialogue about ocean challenges, form new collaborations, and make public commitments to improving our oceans. A few members of our Future of Fish…

With almost 10 years of experience, predominantly in small scale fisheries, and with a focus on traceability and improved data systems, Momo has successfully supported the implementation of Fisheries Improvement Projects, has worked to implement the world’s first Fair Trade USA Wild Capture Fisheries certification process and has coordinated national and regional policy and fisheries management initiatives. Momo brings a practical and inclusive approach to 'on the ground' fisheries interventions and believes that this is the way to create sustainability within projects and ownership…

*** Más abajo, versión en español *** As 2017 drew to a close, we continued our work with the artisanal common hake fishery in Chile. (Read about our previous trips here and here.) Building from our initial research phase, we are now beginning to co-design interventions with partners on-the-ground. Our model puts a lot of emphasis on ensuring we are listening and learning from those who live and work in the system, testing and validating ideas with the many local actors who have put so much time…

Traceability is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. The transition from paper to electronic traceability systems is a journey for any company. Several factors make this process especially difficult for the seafood industry, including the complexities of seafood supply chains, numerous product types, and concerns about data sharing and security. These system-level barriers mean that even the most motivated companies struggle to adopt traceability technology, and as a whole, the seafood industry lags behind most other markets. Alanna Gisondo of FishWise walks participants through the…