International:Scientific network within sustainable fishing

19th of January 2010

The workshop on the future Environmental labelling of seafood was successfully completed in Copenhagen. Presentations and other relevant documents are published on this page.

29th of June 2009

The homepage of the project (this page) is up and running. In accordance with our goal to make tracefood a hub for different traceability projects, we have decided to use this wiki as the home for the project.

The main goal of this project is: To identify solutions for how traceability can contribute to make fisheries more sustainable .

In particular this will be acomplished through our primary goal which is to: Establish a multidisciplinary network consisting of representatives from both industry, government, consumer groups, and research, and provide an arena where these actors may meet and discuss solutions to how traceability and labelling can contribute towards more sustainable fisheries. Sub goals are to:

1) Map and specify criteria for sustainable food.

2) Map and specify requirements for traceability systems and data registration throughout the value chain seen from the viewpoint of public administration. (fisheries authorities, customs and tax departments etc.)

3) Map and specify requirements for food labelling, including consumer wishes.

4) Map and specify requirements for a labelling scheme. (i.e. environmental marks)

5) Establish national, nordic, and european research projects within this theme.

6) Contribute to international standardization processes. (i.e. Good Traceability Practice Guidelines and ISO TC234)

Documented quality and sustainability within the fishery and aquaculture sectors have received an increased focus from both the consumers and the governments nationally and internationally, including the UN and EU. Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU) poses a major threat to sustainable exploitation of living aquatic resources and the marine biodiversity because of reduced fish stocks. The general focus on the environment has also actualised that capture, processing, and transport of fish to a larger degree are to be performed in an environmental green and sustainable way.

A suggestion from communities working with traceability is to provide standardized data capture of the fish along the value chain in order to document the origin and legality of the fish. The basic idea is that a management regime supported by traceability and testable labelling of products will in time make it more difficult for IUU fish to enter the legal value chain.