Planet Tracker has launched a new interactive database aimed at promoting greater transparency across the US’s seafood supply chain.
The Seafood Database brings together data from different sources, enabling users to compare companies’ exposure to overfishing, illegal fishing and sustainability risks.
The latest report from the financial think tank finds that only 8% of the 100 largest seafood companies disclose the exact seafood species in their portfolios which prevents investors and lenders from accurately assessing risk and opportunity.
“Companies that do not have granular data in species exposure and harvesting locations are unlikely to be aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework,” commented François Mosnier, head of Oceans Programme at Planet Tracker.
“We estimate that over half of the companies we assessed are not TNFD-ready based on the information they fail to provide.”
Initially encompassing 100 companies, more will be added to the database in the coming months. Activities range from fishing and aquaculture, through to processing, retail, fish vaccination and equipment manufacturer. On average, each company is engaged in three of these businesses, with processing being the most popular.
Planet Tracker is calling on financial institutions to demand greater supply chain transparency. This means asking companies to disclose: ‘What’ – the scientific names of the species they are invested in, ‘Where’ – the exact location of farming and capture and ‘How’ – the fishing gear and farming method used.
Such disclosure can be done via the Ocean Disclosure Project, or directly via the Planet Tracker database.
