“Traceability is critical to our ability to manage for resil-
ience,” says Mark Zimring, director of the Large Scale Fisheries
Program at the Nature Conservancy, which helps manage a
group of ocean- roaming species that transcend national juris-
dictions. “Two-thirds of global fisheries are overfished,” he says.
Emerging technologies offer opportunities for retailers as
well as oversight bodies to monitor what’s happening. Conserva-
tionists are calling for onboard cameras equipped with artificial
intelligence that can distinguish the weight and length of fish,
as a replacement for absent human monitors. The European
Union mandates the use of both electronic reporting and sat-
ellite tracking on vessels longer than 12 meters (39.4 feet) so
government regulators can better keep an eye on populations.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Del Pacifico, a wholesaler of shrimp
certified as fair trade, equips its boats with a solar-powered
tracker from a company called Pelagic Data Systems. Each
device monitors the craft’s movements via satellite; prospec-
tive customers can then enter a lot ID number to confirm, for
instance, shrimpers were not in waters where endangered por-
poises reside. Del Pacifico works with 1,500 stores, primarily
in the United States—and retail has grown enough during the
pandemic to cover the 25 percent of stock it would normally
sell to restaurants. “Traceability helped us get more clients, and
more high-end clients,” says founder and CEO Sergio Castro.
A growing number of efforts are joining the ranks of Del Pacif-
ico in assuring consumers that fish are properly handled once
they leave the water. Niceland Seafoods weaves sensor-equipped
RFID tags into packaging to track temperatures. In New Zea-
land, the World Wildlife Fund has developed a blockchain- based
system to embed information on the movement of wild-caught
tuna on tags and link the data to a QR code.Still, adoption can be slow. Some fishermen may be
reluctant to embrace public tracking of their vessels
out of fear it might tip competitors to closely guarded
information, like, say, their favorite hotspots. Yet oth-
ers find valuable upsides. In Peru, mahi- mahi and
squid harvesters are using a World Wildlife Fund–
backed smartphone app to create historical records
of their performance, which will allow them to claim
their fair share of the catch should the government
impose quotas—as happened with anchovies, one of
the biggest natural stocks in the world.
Ultimately, digital oversight could rein in what is
essentially a Wild West offshore. A 2019 study in the
journal Fish and Fisheries surveyed 100 electronic mon-
itoring trials and 12 fully implemented programs, such
as those in the EU, and found that the devices were
cost-effective, offered better coverage of a fleet than
human observers, and generated more data on the
amount and specific location of fishing activity.
Helping the people on the boats adopt transparent,
sustainable methods yields a fruitful synergy: more
swimmers in the ocean, more cash in locals’ pockets,
and better seafood on dining tables. Coronado, for
one, takes pride in maintaining the heritage practices
his co-op has used for decades, and sees COVID-19 as
a window of opportunity to expand traceability—and
with it, their business. Without those kinds of changes,
the fourth-generation fisherman worries there won’t
be a fifth to carry on the tradition. “We have to prove
to people that working the way we do, it’s possible to
support a family,” he says. “That it’s possible to live.”LANDING A LIFELINEPOPSCI.COM / WINTER 2020 1153-6-1-6-6-7-5-1-3