SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is a big topic. So let’s break it down.

1. The relative environmental impact of wild-caught seafood

Let’s start with the big picture.

Wild-caught seafood needs NO arable land or fresh water.

50% of the world’s habitable land and 70% of global freshwater are used for agriculture, while 78% of the global ocean and freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways with nutrient-rich pollutants) is caused by agriculture (Ritchie, H., & Roser, M.). In contrast, wild-caught seafood needs no arable land or fresh water, two of the most precious and scarce resources we have on planet earth. That means that the production of wild-caught seafood does not require the destruction of forests, grasslands or wetlands nor the draining of river systems and aquifers that so often accompanies land-based animal agriculture. It also means that the production of wild-caught seafood does not stand in competition with any other land-based category of food, but in fact complements it.

Wild-caught seafood uses NO fertilizers, pesticides or chemicals of any kind.

Unlike land-based foods and animal agriculture, wild-caught seafood also does not need chemical inputs of any kind. No fertilizers, no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, no bleaching or anti-fungal agents; no chemicals whatsoever. That means that wild-caught seafood does not cause pollution of our watersheds, degradation of our soils, or loss of biodiversity caused by the use of agro-chemicals.

Wild-caught seafood uses NO antibiotics, hormones or agroceuticals of any kind.

Wild-caught seafood is just that - wild and unadulterated. Wild fish live in their natural habitat, and are not subject to the use of antibiotics, growth hormones or any other agroceutical that is so often necessary in land-based animal husbandry to keep animals healthy and growing fast. That means wild fish meat, unlike many land-based foods, naturally does not contain any antibiotics, growth hormones, or medicines that may have adverse effects on our health.

Wild-caught seafood has BY FAR the lowest carbon footprint of any animal product.

Food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (Ritchie & Roser, 2020), and none contribute more than beef, pork, lamb and cheese. In contrast, wild-caught seafood on average has the lowest carbon footprint of any animal meat, and is on par with many plant foods. This picture looks even better for wild seafood that is caught, processed and consumed locally, as is generally the case with West Coast groundfish.

The majority of emissions that are produced by catching wild fish come from the fuel used by fishing vessels. For this reason, emissions vary by the fishery. Fisheries such as lobster and shrimp for instance contribute higher emissions (per kg of food) than other seafood because they are fuel-intensive and result in a low amount of landed catch per trip. West Coast groundfish, however, is one of the fisheries that produces the least amount of emissions due to their high catch per trip (Max, Parker, & Tyedmers, Seafood Carbon Emissions Tool).

2. Healthy + abundant fish populations

First and foremost, for a wild-capture fishery to be deemed truly sustainable it has to have abundant and healthy fish population levels and should not be subject to overfishing. Perpetual abundance and ocean ecosystem health are the overarching goals! Otherwise, even a fisherman who is using the most gentle and artisanal catch method, if they harvest from a population that is already being overfished, they still add to the overfishing issue and are not fishing sustainably.

The West Coast groundfish fishery suffered a serious population decline in several of its commercially fished species during the 90s and essentially shut down after being declared a federal disaster in 2000. 10 of its 90+ species were declared overfished. Since then, this fishery has bounced back to remarkably abundant and ever-growing population levels and is now hailed as the “comeback of the century” by NOAA. 9 of the 10 previously overfished species have been completely rebuilt and have reached optimum biomass levels for maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The last remaining species – Yelloweye Rockfish – is rebuilding nicely and is predicted to be fully rebuilt by 2029, decades ahead of its original schedule.

West Coast Groundfish biomass ratio over time - all species

Biomass of the West Coast Groundfish populations declined during the 1980s and 1990s, reaching its lowest point in 1998. Since then it has been on a steady increase, surpassing the optimum biomass level for maximum sustainable yield level (MSY) in 2004, and is now at very healthy levels. The chart below shows the biomass ratio for all 90+ species in the West Coast groundfish fishery. This biomass ratio is measured in B/Bmsy : Observed Biomass/Biomass that would provide maximum sustainable yield. If the B/BMSY ratio falls below 1, then the stock’s biomass is too low to provide maximum sustainable yield.

West Coast Groundfish biomass ratio over time  - rebuilding species

Looking at just the 10 West Coast groundfish species that had to be rebuilt, we see that their average biomass ratio had dropped well below optimum levels to just 0.4 during the 90s. While each of the 10 species has an individual recovery timeline, when we look at all 10 rebuilding species together it took 13 years (2001-2014) to rebuild them back to optimum levels.

3. Science-driven fisheries management

Effective regulation and enforcement, informed and driven by the best available science is a core pillar of sustainability. The United States has one of the most comprehensive and involved fisheries management systems in the world that takes into account a broad suite of considerations, but has conservation as the #1 goal: “to prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks by managing for appropriate harvest levels and prevent, to the extent practicable, any net loss of the habitat of living marine resources.” Under the direction of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (1976), the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (1 of 8 regional fisheries councils), manages commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries for about 119 species of groundfish, salmon, coastal pelagic species, and highly migratory species in federal waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California. The council meets 5 times a year to review scientific findings, develop and debate courses of actions, and make recommendations to NOAA regarding fisheries management decisions. This is a fully transparent public process that is highly collaborative and participatory – some call it “painfully democratic but damn effective”.

To learn more and dive deeper on fisheries management of West Coast groundfish go to Pacific Fisheries Management Council. 

Stock assessments

At the very foundation of sustainable fisheries management are regular and effective stock assessments, basically a census of the fish population. A stock assessment provides an estimate of the overall biomass, recruitment (i.e. new baby fish) and natural mortality, age and gender profiles within the fish population, as well as their geographic distribution and environmental data. This wealth of data is used to monitor the health of the population and make management decisions such as catch limits, area/seasonal closures or gear restrictions. West Coast groundfish stock assessments are conducted every year from May to October along the entire West Coast and are run by government-employed fisheries scientists. Crucially though, in the case of West Coast groundfish, stock surveys are conducted in collaboration with fishermen making use of their boats, gear and expertise. This collaboration meant that scientists get to tap into the enormous working knowledge of the fleet, and fishermen can have more insight and trust into the scientific process on which management decisions are based. Nowadays, often it’s the fishing industry that is the loudest and proudest advocate for more and better science.

For more information read NOAA’s description of the West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey.

Total Annual Catch Limits

Effective fisheries management starts with scientifically-set total annual catch limits which, as the name suggests, limit the total amount of fish that can be sustainably caught. They are set such that catches do not impact the fish stock’s ability to reproduce and maintain or grow its population size. These annual catch limits are based on our best scientific understanding of the biology and behavior of these fish species, regular scientific stock assessments, as well as predictions about other ecosystem and environmental factors that influence the fish population (i.e. predation, availability of prey/food, ocean temperatures etc.). Fisheries scientists who work for the U.S. government then use all of this data to build complex scientific models and make recommendations to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council about the total amount of fish that can safely and sustainably be taken in upcoming years. Once the total annual catch limit is established, it gets divided up into catch limits for the various sub-groups of fishing fleets that harvest these fish stocks, typically differentiated by geography and gear type. This entire process is public and open for anyone to participate in, observe or read about.

Read more about West Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan.

Individual Fishing Quota

Total annual catch limits that are imposed on entire fleets are a commonly used fisheries management tool by now. However, the West Coast Groundfish fishery went further, and pioneered a new type of catch share program – Individual Fishing Quotas - that created even more personal accountability and incentives for fishermen. Since 2011, the West Coast shore-based trawl fisheries for whiting and non-whiting groundfish (e.g. rockfish, sole, lingcod, black cod) have been managed using individual fishing quotas (IFQ). Under this program, each permit holder owns and is allocated a share (a “catch share”) of the total annual catch limit for each species. Permit holders have to account for everything they’ve caught and are obligated to stop fishing when they’ve reached their individual quota. Beginning in 2014, quota holders are allowed to buy and sell quota shares, allowing fishermen who go over their quota of a specific species to buy more from other quota holders instead of having to shut down for the year. This individual fishing quota system changed the fishery from being managed by a fishery-wide total allowable catch which often results in a “race to fish”, a situation in which all boats compete to catch as much as they can before anyone else can.  Instead, the IFQ system allows fishermen to choose when and for how long they fish, so long as they stay within their allocation.  The result is a safer fishery in which fishermen can avoid bad weather and plan to catch their quota throughout the year, maximizing the price they can get, instead of everyone catching it all at once and flooding the market. Moreover, the specific quota for each species incentivizes avoiding bycatch and establishes total accountability for what is caught.

Learn more about the trawl catch share program.

Underutilization

The West Coast Groundfish fishery is now deemed “underutilized”, which is to say that the fleet of groundfish fishermen catch FAR LESS than the sustainable Annual Total Catch Limit would actually allow them to. As the groundfish biomass increases so does the fishery’s quota. However, the catch levels have not kept pace due to too little market demand from American consumers. During the 10-15 years that the groundfish fleet was off the water and the stocks recovered, the fillets of rockfish or sole that were once found in seafood cases or on restaurant menus had been replaced by other white fish species, typically imported farmed fish such as tilapia. And with it, vessels were retired, and processors switched to other products or disappeared altogether.

Underutilization of a sustainable fishery is not necessarily a good thing for the environment. First, it means that not enough consumers are making the switch away from overfished species to sustainably managed seafood species. And that keeps the fishing pressure high on those already overfished stocks. Second, sustainable fishing needs to be the most economical as well, if we want it to become the predominant way that seafood is managed and caught around the world. And lastly, there is evidence that having the right amount of fishing pressure is actually resulting in higher reproductive rates and increases overall productivity of the fish stock.

Quota, Catch and Utilization rate of the West Coast Groundfish IFQ Trawl fleet

Closed Areas/Seasons

Since the early 2000s, a special effort has been made to avoid overfished species, sensitive habitats or breeding grounds that could be affected by the West Coast Groundfish fleets. At that time, a number of Rockfish Conservation Areas were also established. In 2006, over 100,000 square miles of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) including approximately 14,000 square miles of some of the most sensitive ocean floor habitats off Washington, Oregon, and California, were closed to bottom trawling. Then in 2020, new regulation came into effect which makes approximately 90% of the seafloor off Washington, Oregon, and California off-limits to bottom trawling. This regulation was widely celebrated as a truly collaborative effort between the fishing industry and scientists/regulators and seen as a true win-win. With better science, stakeholders were able to better identify sensitive or significant habitats that benefit from protection, while also recognizing great fishing grounds in less sensitive habitats that could be opened to fishing.

Learn more about the recent changes to closed areas go read the PFMC decision, or this more digestible article by EDF.

Bycatch & Discard Levels

We often see these terms used interchangeably, but they are in fact two different things. “Bycatch” is the catch of any species that wasn’t specifically targeted, whereas “discards” refers to catch that was thrown back into the ocean and not brought to port. It is worth clarifying that the vast majority of “bycatch” are not marine mammals, seabirds or endangered species, but are other edible fish species. Moreover, “bycatch” is not necessarily being discarded, and bycatch can certainly be sustainable - that is, if the species caught as bycatch are from an abundant, healthy stock, and the fisherman had quota for it. Likewise, “discarded” fish are not necessarily dead – depending on the species and catch method between 50-93% of discarded fish survive.  

Nevertheless, a sustainable fishery will continuously seek to reduce the levels of bycatch and discards. And the West Coast Groundfish fishery has seen dramatic improvements in bycatch and discard levels. In 2002, before sustainability measures were put in place, the fishery had an average discard rate of 45% of the catch. Through new net technology, area and seasonal closures, and new landings and discard rules, this discard rate was reduced to 10% by 2011, and down now to 4% in 2019. (Source)

4. Enforcement, Oversight + Certifications

Government Observers

Since 2001, the West Coast Groundfish trawl fishery has had 100% observer coverage, meaning there is a trained government observer onboard every boat for every single fishing trip that is made. These observers collect information on what is caught and what is discarded (if any), as well as where, when and how fish is caught. They would also record any potential interactions with marine mammals/protected species or gear loss and recovery. But that’s not all – you might in fact read that West Coast groundfish has 200% observer coverage – that’s 100% onboard vessels and 100% at the dock. Port-side observers record and verify all the catch that is landed, creating a dual record that safeguards against IUU (illegal, unreported, unregulated). Recently, NOAA has made the decision that beginning in 2021 the West Coast groundfish fleet has the option of using electronic cameras (which will be reviewed by an observer on land) as a substitute for having human observers on the boat. The main goal is to make observer coverage more time and cost-efficient. NOAA estimates that this could save fishermen between $100- $300 per day or more. 

Learn more about NOAA’s observer program, and Electronic Monitoring.

Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

Since 2014 the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has certified 13 species of West Coast groundfish as sustainable.  In 2019, at the 5-year review, MSC re-certified the fishery and added five more species, bringing the total MSC-certified west coast groundfish species to 18.  This certification process is thorough and examines nearly every part of environmental performance, sustainability, and traceability of wild capture seafood and takes about 12-18 months to complete. There are three main principles that make up the MSC Fishery Standard, the sustainability of the fish stock, the impact on the fishery has on the ecosystem, and how effective the fishery is managed.  Within these three principles, there are 28 different performance indicators that each will receive a score out of 100, to become certified a fishery must score at least 60 in each of the 28 indicators. The assessments are conducted by independent “conformity assessment bodies” or CAB’s who appoint a team to visit the fishery, consult all relevant stakeholders and consider all available data and information in making a decision as to whether or not the fishery should be certified. The MSC certification sets itself apart from others by focusing not only on the sustainability of the species but also on the sustainability of each specific fishery and certifies individual products. So, the MSC label verifies that a specific product is compliant with their fishery standard and certified, unlike Seafood Watch which acts as more of a species guide for consumers.  Moreover, the MSC label guarantees you will be able to track a specific product back to a specific MSC certified boat it was caught on. The MSC certification is considered the gold standard of seafood certifications and serves as your way of being sure the seafood you buy is as sustainable as possible at every step from when it’s caught until it ends up on your plate.

Learn more about the Marine Stewardship Council.

Seafood Watch

All commercially fished West Coast Groundfish species from the US are rated as “Best Choice” by Seafood Watch.Seafood Watch is a seafood sustainability rating system managed by The Monterey Bay Aquarium.They research and evaluate the environmental impact of wild fisheries and aquaculture products and make one of three recommendations: “Best Choice” (green), “Good Alternative” (yellow), or “Avoid” (red).Seafood Watch does not have a label for products, instead they make species recommendations (specific to geography and fishing method) to serve as a guide for consumers.The first and most essential hurdle for Seafood Watch recommendations is ensuring the fishery is sustainable.Seafood Watch defines sustainable seafood as seafood that can maintain or increase production without jeopardizing the structure and function of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch has ten “Guiding Principles” that they use to determine if a fishery is sustainable.Next, Seafood Watch scores the fishery based on their four main criteria which are: Impacts on the Species Under Assessment, Impacts on Other Capture Species, Management Effectiveness, and Impacts on the Habitat and Ecosystem.Each criterion is broken down into several sub-factors, which are each evaluated and scored separately. They then take the average of these scores and make a recommendation based on this “final score”.

Learn more about Seafood Watch and download their West Coast species guide.

5. Gear + technology innovation for sustainability

Better nets

In most fisheries change happens slowly.  Changing to new or different fishing gear is expensive, risky, and the stakes are incredibly high.  In an industry that’s already completely dependent on nature, changing equipment adds to the uncertainty. Despite this, the West Coast groundfish fishery has seen great technological innovations making it both more efficient and more sustainable. Trawl gear has seen huge advancements in sustainability in the last 30 years. Nets have been adapted to allow unwanted species to escape, drastically reducing bycatch levels. New generations of so-called trawl doors now not only work to keep the net open but also work to keep the net off the ocean floor, reducing damage to seafloor habitat. Moreover, in the West Coast groundfish fishery the trawl footrope is stipulated to be much smaller now, which both limit the damage the gear could inflict on the seafloor, but it also makes the gear more vulnerable in case of snags, which incentivizes fishermen to avoid contact with the ocean floor. And overall the gear has become much more lightweight, which reduces seafloor damage but also reduces drag and fuel use.

Improved catch monitoring

Catch monitoring is an area that has benefited from recent advances in technology.  For years trawlers have used cameras and sonar to monitor their trawls’ shape, depth, and orientation.  However, as camera technology has advanced a growing number of companies have begun working towards implementing “smarter” features into their catch monitoring cameras.  New features include the ability to identify the exact type of fish entering the trawl in real-time allowing trawlers to not only increase the amount they catch but also to monitor and prevent bycatch in a much more comprehensive and accurate way (Nero, 2019). 

References

Environmental Defense Fund. “New Rule in Pacific Groundfish Fishery Creates Double-Win for Environment, Fishermen”, January 7, 2020, > read

Mansfied, B. 2001. “Property Regime or Development Policy? Explaining Growth in the U.S. Pacific Groundfish Fishery.” The Professional Geographer 53(3):384–397.  > read

Max, L., Parker, R., & Tyedmers, P. (n.d.). Seafood Carbon Emissions Tool. > read

Nero, M. E., Trawling Technology: What's New and on the Horizon. Fishermen’s News, August 1, 2019, Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read

NOAA Fisheries. (2020, July 02). U.S. West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey. Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read

NOAA Fisheries. (n.d.). West Coast Groundfish. Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. (n.d.). West Coast Groundfish Observer Program (WCGOP). Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read

Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2020, January 15). Environmental impacts of food production. Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read

Warlick, A., Steiner, E., & Guldin, M. (2018, March 30). History of the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery: Tracking socioeconomic characteristics across different management policies in a multispecies fishery. Retrieved July 14, 2020, > read