The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has launched a Southeast Asia Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) aimed at improving the fisheries that supply fishmeal to aquaculture feeds in Asia.
The FIP will consist of four separate projects, two in Vietnam and two in Thailand. The projects will consist of groups of industry and government stakeholders that will assess the improvement needs of the fisheries; create work plans to meet the needs of the fisheries; measure progress against work plans over time; and publicly report on progress.
It is likely that start of the project will be generating data concerning the state of fish stocks, volumes of fish landings, bycatch issues and establishing other important facts about the fisheries.
The project is being actively supported by companies within the supply chain for farmed seafood including retailers, processors, aquaculture producers and feed manufacturers.
Commenting on the launch of the project, Duncan Leadbitter, Technical Director for the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, said:
“The sustainability of aquaculture is crucially dependent on the good management of fisheries that provide fishmeal for feed. This project is intended to work with South East Asian fisheries that catch many species in trawling gear and have challenges that need to be resolved. One common ambition will be to reduce the number of juvenile fish that are caught in the nets because this reduces the potential catch in future years.”
