The Fisheye

Come explore innovative ecosystem service management opportunities and tools with us at the world’s premier conference on seafood sustainability.

On February 11, Future of Fish and F.L.O.W. Collaborative will host an interactive workshop at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in New Orleans. Participants can explore ecosystem service valuation as a mechanism for financing sustainable fisheries.

Ecosystem service is a nascent field that enables businesses to incorporate natural capital into their bottom line. By accounting for what nature does, ecosystems services take corporate social responsibility to the next level.

In the last 10 years we’ve seen 25 of the top U.S. retailers make commitments to purchasing sustainable seafood. We’ve seen a lot less traction and follow-through. Leading companies could be doing a lot more to drive supply chains in the right direction.

The Seafood Expo North America offers the unique opportunity to meet and mingle with people from every possible facet of the seafood industry. We decided to take advantage of this convergence of players to ask four simple questions about what the industry looks like from the inside. Here's what we heard.

Exposés of deception and abuse in food supply chains have become disturbingly routine. Seafood is no exception. We need to rebuild the systems and behaviors of the global interconnected brokers, corporations and governments that touch your food before it hits your plate. Pulling that off will require better data.

Talking trash on the docks is nothing new. But talking how to turn “trash fish”— fish that comes up in the net that is in less demand—into treasured bounty is a different story. And the idea offers hope for creating new markets that can benefit both fishers and fish.