Ocean conservation advocacy organisation Oceana has called on the European Union to require full transparency for all seafood sold on the market, including processed and imported products. It wants consumers to be able to know what species of fish they are buying, if they come from overfished stocks, and where, how, and when they were caught.
To provide more information to those that eat, buy and sell seafood, Oceana is urging the EU to include sustainability information on all seafood products. To this end, it has started a Follow the Fish movement.
“EU citizens have the right to know more about the fish they eat, particularly when it comes to environmental sustainability and fair labour conditions. Currently, it is very difficult for consumers to know what they are getting when they go to buy their seafood. Making this information available is the best way to avoid unsustainably fished products ending up on our plates,” said Vanya Vulperhorst, Campaign Director for Illegal Fishing and Transparency at Oceana in Europe.
Oceana said that to address the current lack of consumer information about seafood, it is proposing the EU develops a mandatory sustainability ranking for all seafood products, which could provide information on the fish eaten and to help consumers avoid products associated with unsustainable practices and unethical conditions.
“The creation of an EU ranking system for seafood would be a revolutionary opportunity to improve the information for those who buy and sell seafood, and those who eat it. To be effective, it’s critical that this information system be mandatory, and apply to all EU seafood products, no matter whether they’re fresh or processed, EU-caught or imported,” Vulperhorst said.
The European Commission is currently working on a proposal for a legislative Framework for Sustainable Food Systems and is considering how best to provide EU consumers with information on environmental and social sustainability on all food items, including seafood.
There are several options on the table, ranging from reinforcing existing guidelines to creating a new framework for sustainability information, with either a mandatory or voluntary EU-wide system.
