Aqua stalwarts join stewardship initiative

The Seafood Business Ocean Stewardship initiative has been drawn up by eight companies – including Cermaq, Cargill, Nutreco and Marine Harvest – and aims to eliminate IUU fisheries and inhumane working conditions in the seafood industry.

The eight companies control up to 16% of the Earth's most important fish resources and have expressed strong concern about the future of the ocean as a result of a lack of environmental strategy and inadequate resource management.

“Increasingly more people look to the sea for solutions to the global food and climate challenges facing the world community. Only by strengthening our global partnership, we will find good solutions for sustainability that can increase food production from the sea,” says Einar Wathne, president of Cargill Aqua Nutrition and Chairman of Norwegian Centre of Expertise, The Seafood Innovation Cluster.

Knut Nesse, CEO of Nutreco, added: “I believe this represents a good start to something which can become important in improving the sustainability of seafood. First and foremost because it is a real global initiative. Secondly, and equally important, it links the challenges in wild fisheries and aquaculture. I look forward to translate our joint commitment into concrete actions.”

The companies came together to reduce the global extent of illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries. They will also address shortcomings in reporting and documentation of the value chain in order to prevent illegal fishing and forced labour linked to the sector.

The initiative is unique as it is global, covers large oceans and several industry interests. Bringing together key actors seafood companies from Asia and Europe in a joint initiative is an important step towards the further development of climate-friendly and sustainable industry.

“We are part of a small but very influential group, and we have a responsibility to ensure that the seafood industry is not only profitable but also sustainable in line with UN development goals, particularly related to the sea. This group of companies represents a global force that can make a difference,” says Geir Molvik, CEO of Cermaq.

The new initiative comes as a result of research conducted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) at Stockholm University. In 2015, the center identified the 13 biggest companies that largely control the global seafood market. The research gave rise to the idea of ??gathering these keystone actors in the seafood industry to create unified transformation of the seafood industry.

“We were delighted so many companies accepted our offer. This shows that they recognise their role and that they understand how important they are in their efforts to develop and save the world's fish resources,” says Henrik Österblom, project leader and Head of Research at SRC.

The companies involved in the initiative are: