There have been many sensationalist articles written and broadcasts aired about an impending collapse of the world’s fisheries, but whilst this planet is in the midst of a population boom – projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050 – it’s simply not true that we would have eaten the last fish in the sea by that date.

Instead, many stakeholders in the seafood industry believe it’s time to take stock. They say in the coming decades the population will continue to grow, but mostly in poor or ‘developing’ countries and, for quite obvious reasons, this is where the concept of sustainable fisheries needs to be driven and efforts focused.

Henry Demone, president & CEO of North American seafood giant High Liner Foods, told delegates at the recent Seafood Summit 2011, held in Vancouver, Canada, he believes people in the West have their seafood needs looked after so it’s time to look at the bigger picture.

“There are a lot of good things happening in North America and Europe,” he said. “It will be difficult to operate badly in those markets in the coming years. But I am worried by the developing world.”

There was a widely shared opinion at this year’s Summit that China’s voracious demand for seafood is standing in the way of sustainability and that the Chinese aren’t concerned by it; only protein.

Melanie Siggs, vice-president of non-profit conservation organisation SeaWeb, confirmed China is recognised as one of the significant “gaps” in the planet’s adoption of sustainability. She said that as such a major producer and consumer of seafood, it’s vital the country is encouraged to embrace responsible practices, but that such engagement needs to be sensitively conducted and at the appropriate level.

“I think what’s important to consider with China is the difference in who you may need to address. Are we going to address the consumer within China; or the export market; or China’s activities in the rest of the world? There are differing levels of complexity within those levels.

“We should also ask whether China is on the edge because it doesn’t want to engage or because it doesn’t have the skill-set or enough information?”

Jim Cannon, CEO of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, pointed out the demand for seafood from North American and European markets may have been a significant contributor to a lot of the problems now seen in many developing nations.

He is, however, confident rapid changes in China are not too far away and explained many Chinese seafood suppliers are both aware and concerned about domestic fisheries management.

Corporate sense

If seafood companies in China or any other developing nation want proof that sustainability makes sense from a commercial standpoint, they need look no further than High Liner, which recently made a commitment to source all its seafood from certified sustainable fisheries or fish farms by 2013.

“Sustainability is good business,” commented Demone. “High Liner is a customer-driven organisation – what’s important to our customers is important to us, and sustainability is increasingly important to our large customers.

“Furthermore, when we save money on energy, when we reduce our carbon footprint – our expenses go down. When we use more efficient packaging – our expenses go down.

“High Liner been in business for 112 years and that’s a long time for an organisation to survive and prosper. In a decade from now we’ll need something to sell so we have great interest in sustainable seafood.”

Almost every major US and Canadian retailer has engaged with the sustainable seafood movement on some level, as have all the major buyers for branded suppliers and several restaurant chains. This has seen sales stopped on species like orange roughy, sharks, Chilean seabass and Canadian cod.

There have also been some major achievements in the water. In a relatively short space of time, the whitefish supply that concerned stakeholders has stopped its decline and many stocks are growing again.

“What we reckon now is two-thirds of the whitefish industry is engaged on some level with the Marine Stewardship Council. Another 20% are in improvement projects of some level or another,” said Cannon.

Future’s bright

Cannon is “very confident” the seas can provide for the growing population if stakeholders rally to keep pristine areas alive over the next 50 years.

He also believes that while economies will grow, the global population will in fact top out at 9 billion by 2050. This milestone is “a bottleneck we need to get to”, he said, but added that at some point demand will start falling.

“The point is we can see when that’s going to happen. We need to hold on, look at best practices, make adjustments and deal with population pressure.

“I’m pretty optimistic in what I expect in terms of the state of the ocean.”

Demone also highlighted reason for optimism. “Two or three years ago we didn’t know where future supplies were going to come from,” he said. “We had no hope that we’d see an improvement in wild fisheries. But with efforts on the NGO side, the impact they’ve had on customers, and through the impact those companies have had on companies like High Liner we’ve started to see real positive change.

“We’ve seen improvement in many complicated fisheries that were given up for dead. For example, there’s little or no illegal fishing for cod or haddock in the Barents Sea, north of Norway, instead there’s an increase in quotas. We’ve also seen an improved resource for hoki.

“It’s very important that we learn from our successes. A lot has been accomplished over the last 20 years in the sustainability of our seafood.”

And the High Liner chief said he felt the best way of pushing the concept of sustainable seafood in developing countries is through retail.

“If you can engage the big retailers then you can start change.”

He also issued a caution against “demonising” certain segments of the seafood industry.

“I’m not going to say all bottom trawling is good or all aquaculture is good, but if you demonise them they will not improve.”

Demone believes market forces are created by engaging with such industries, which ultimately leads to positive change. There’s a strong case for applying the same principle to developing countries.