The Fisheye

It’s been a strong year for fisheries improvement in Chile. As we wrote about in January, the government kicked-off 2019 with passage of a modernization law to strengthen enforcement and transparency across Chile’s extensive fisheries and supply chains. As part of this effort, Future of Fish is excited to continue our partnership with SERNAPESCA to improve data systems and build stronger infrastructure for protection and improvement of Chile’s fisheries—a partnership that was made official on July 17, 2019, through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Over the last year, Future of Fish has been working through a co-design process with four Chilean artisanal hake caletas, leading them through idea development, business modelling and most recently to the finalisation of business plans. Last month we brought everyone together in Valparaiso, to discuss our cross-caleta learnings and plan our next steps.

Working with four caletas in different locations (El Quisco, Duao, San Antonio and San Pedro Concon) and a group of open air market vendors (mostly from Santiago) means that Future of Fish and our partners at ECOS and APPChile have a birds eye view of the proceedings, allowing us to notice the similarities and crossover between the conversations in each syndicate.

World Ocean Day was June 8, and we loved hearing about all the inspiring projects and activists working to improve the health of our oceans. This year’s focus was “gender and the ocean,” a topic very dear to our hearts. 

Of course, work to protect marine environments and create thriving fisheries is a year-round job, so this week we’re continuing the appreciation for ocean advocates by giving props to some of our favorite women in fisheries. From tech to government, these amazing women are working to make global fisheries more equitable and sustainable every day of the year.

The fish tech space is growing, and fast. It was just a few years back that industry folks and nonprofits alike were trying to get their heads around what end-to-end traceability might look like and which technologies might be used to facilitate it. Since then, we’ve seen technologies such as blockchain, electronic monitoring, and machine learning make a splash in the seafood and ocean conservation spaces. With the exploding number of companies and initiatives, it can be hard to keep up.