Statistical tools to assess the breadth and depth of shrimp aquaculture certification schemes

Tlusty, Michael F.; Thompson, Matthew P.; Tausig, Heather

doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2015.10.008

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…State regulations tend to be less rigorous, as the goal is to have the state industry be as profitable as possible, and thus include as many participants as possible. Voluntary certifications operate across many nations, and thus can have greater rigor (Tlusty et al., ). Yet, being a business, they also need to certify products, and thus cannot be expected to be the bastion of sustainable production.…”

Section: They Say I'm Old‐fashioned and Live In The Past But Sometimmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Private governance, of which CSR is a part, is generally believed to have emerged in response to the difficulties that states have had in effectively regulating public marine resources such as fisheries. By setting “higher” standards than state legislation, voluntary, often NGO‐led, governance vis a vis certifications (Tlusty et al., ) is argued to incentivize governments to “ratchet up” their regulatory performance (Cashore, Auld, Bernstein, & McDermott, ). But it is not “either‐or” when it comes to seafood governance.…”

Section: You Have Brains In Your Head You Have Feet In Your Shoes Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of corporate social responsibility in creating a Seussian world of seafood sustainability

et al. 2018

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Approaches to counter the overfishing and aquaculture production crisis include those imposed by public governing bodies, as well as those implemented by businesses and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). In the case of the latter, private actors govern fisheries consumption and production through corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this contribution, we focus on three key tools that businesses are increasingly turning towards in an effort to meet the one particular CSR goal of sustainable seafood sourcing. In this context, the key tools of certifications, fisheries improvement projects (FIPs) and traceability are reviewed, and their potential as well as limits in contributing to continual improvement in pursuit of global seafood sustainability are analyzed. We argue that seafood CSR has created its own whimsical and fantastical world, a Seussian world, in which company image has become more important than sustainability performance. We posit four important barriers that must be overcome to bring seafood CSR back to reality. Specifically, we suggest moving away from the business case for CSR, reducing accessibility barriers for small‐scale and developing world fisheries, reconciling different labels and sustainability concepts, and better recognizing the imperative role of the state in governing fisheries and seafood.

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Section: They Say I'm Old‐fashioned and Live In The Past But Sometimmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: You Have Brains In Your Head You Have Feet In Your Shoes Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of corporate social responsibility in creating a Seussian world of seafood sustainability

et al. 2018

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“…These efforts have been critiqued for varied weaknesses concerning the nature of standards, implementation, and unintended consequences, but still certification remains a major focus in the seafood industry. Tlusty and others showed that most certification approaches in aquaculture were essentially similar in their strategies and goals and therefore are wide open for innovation . Also, in this category fall the scorecards, such as the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, numerous species and fishery ranking web sites created by NGOs and U.S. government agencies (NOAA) intended to encourage better sourcing by buyers and to motivate low‐scoring fisheries to improve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does popular media have to tell us about the future of seafood?

Holt¹,

Weisman

Käll

et al. 2018

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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We examined ∼300 newspaper and business-oriented articles published over a 10-year period to assess trends in how seafood "sustainability" is talked about. We mapped key concepts relating to seafood sustainability as the word was used. We asked if the reports provided evidence that perceptions of problems or solutions for sustainability in seafood have changed over time. What were emergent areas of interest, and what concepts relevant to sustainable fisheries and seafood were absent in the reports? The number of reports concerning sustainability that focused on the middle of the supply chain (e.g., primary processors and importers) increased over time; certification was cited as both part of sustainability problems and a solution. We observed very little change over time in the kinds of fishery and seafood problems reported in the media sampled; themes consistently focused on environmental aspects of fisheries (social wellbeing aspects did not appear in the sample as linked with the term "sustainability"); and very few media reports on sustainable seafood cited aquaculture as a solution. We discuss the gap between what many researchers may perceive as the state-of-the-art of ideas and communication in seafood sustainability, and what appeared empirically in media during the period under study.

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“…Goals could be simple and constant, such as having an increasing per cent of product that meets specific certification criteria each year, or more complex as in switching sources that continually meet more rigorous demands (Bush and Oosterveer ; Tlusty et al . ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In the adaptive model, goals could range from ‘increase sourcing of certified products by x% each year’ to ‘increase the breadth and/or depth (see Tlusty et al . ) of sourcing requirements each year’.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Claiming seafood is ‘sustainable’ risks limiting improvements

Tlusty

Thorsen

2016

Fish and Fisheries

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Over the past decade, the sustainability of seafood production has improved and is cause for ocean optimism. In an attempt for recognition of ongoing efforts, many producers and food retailers now claim products are ‘sustainable’. What exactly does this mean and could we limit further improvement using this claim? Here, we discuss the sustainable/sustainability dichotomy, and the problem of communicating continual improvement in terms of grand and absolute claims – that is ‘We sell 100% sustainable product.’ We believe a statement like this risks short selling the challenges at hand and removes necessary and ongoing incentives for learning, improving and innovating. We argue the best path for producers and retailers is to demonstrate and communicate the concrete actions and achievements being made towards a more resilient and healthy food system today and for the future. This requires moving away from the current practice of calling products sustainable, and to instead work towards continually improving the sustainability of the products. Focusing on measuring the impact of our actions generates a wealth of substance and establishes a direction of travel towards seafood of greater sustainability and we believe this will help educate, inform and inspire consumers to make good choices for their own and future generations benefit. In this study, ‘seafood’ will refer to both farmed and wild seafood products, and ‘sustainability’ refers to the behavior that drives economic, environmental and ethical progress towards ensuring seafood availability ‘meet(s) the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.

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Statistical tools to assess the breadth and depth of shrimp aquaculture certification schemes

Cited by 16 publications

References 14 publications

The role of corporate social responsibility in creating a Seussian world of seafood sustainability

The role of corporate social responsibility in creating a Seussian world of seafood sustainability

What does popular media have to tell us about the future of seafood?

Claiming seafood is ‘sustainable’ risks limiting improvements

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