A fish market in the Solomon Islands, near Papua New Guinea.
A fish market in the Solomon Islands, near Papua New Guinea.

A team of researchers, including Edward Allison from the College of the Environment’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, has evaluated fishery improvement projects designed to bring seafood from wild fisheries to the certified market while promising sustainability in the future. In a policy paper appearing May 1 in Science, the team concluded that these projects need to be fine tuned to ensure that fisheries are delivering on their promises. While many of the sustainability standards have been met by commercial fisheries in developed countries, fisheries in developing countries make up only 7 percent of the Marine Stewardship Council’s certified fisheries—this is despite that fisheries in developing countries account for about half of all seafood entering into the international market. Without safeguards to ensure progress and reforms in fishery improvement projects, the team found that fisheries with full sustainability certification could find their market benefits diluted by the increased competition for a share of the global certified seafood market.

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