Why Seafood Traceability Is Broken (And What's Really on Your Plate)

A fish caught in the Pacific Ocean might be processed in China.

Package in Europe and sold in North America.

By the time it reaches a restaurant plate,

the original catch information may be nearly impossible to trace.

Sea food is one of the most globally traced food commodities in the world,

and that complexity creates major transparency changes.

According to the UN, food and agricultural organizations,

roughly 38% of global seafood production enters international trade,

making it one of the most globally distributed food systems on Earth.

A single shipment of fish may cross multiple international borders

before it reaches a consumer.

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The key question for today is,

why is seafood traceability so difficult?

Let's look at some of the points, right?

Sea food supply chains can involve many steps.

We talked about this a little bit yesterday,

but I'm going to go over it again today.

These include fishing vessels,

transshipman vessels, processing plants,

exporters, importers, distributors, restaurants,

and then you have multiple within each of those layers.

Each step creates an opportunity for the information to be lost or altered.

We talked about that with seafood fraud and the mislabeling last episode.

If you want to check that out, you can go to yesterday's episode.

For example, fish caught in Indonesian waters

may be transferred to a refrigerated cargo vessel at sea,

shipped to a processing facility in Thailand or China,

exported to Europe or North America,

and then distributed throughout wholesalers

before reaching a grocery store.

This process is common across the global seafood industry.

This is not something that's new.

A 2020 report from World Wildlife Fund and Global Fishing Watch

found that seafood supply chains often include

multiple transshipments and processing stages,

making it difficult to track the origin of a product

without robust documentation.

One of the biggest traceability challenges

occurs during transshipment.

When the fish caught by fishing vessels are transferred

to a larger refrigerated cargo vessels at sea,

the ships are known as reefers,

can transport seafood directly to ports

thousands of kilometers away.

Because the transfer happens far from poor inspections,

the origin of the cash can become difficult to verify.

Fisheries observers all oftentimes are on these boats,

the fishing boats or the reefers,

the ones that take on the shipments,

and they start looking at what's being transferred over.

They make their notes, they try to identify stuff,

but there have been fisheries observers who have come out and said,

hey, it's really difficult to tell

when the fishing vessels that are catching the fish come in

and then they're transferring over the fish.

They've already slightly processed the fish.

They've cut off the heads, they've cut off the fins,

it's just the bodies, and sometimes it's difficult

when it's really the tails are off, the heads are off,

the fins are off, it's really difficult to tell what they are.

Sometimes you can't tell it's between a shark and a tuna,

and other times it's really difficult with other fish.

It's a difficult process when this transshipment happens,

especially at sea,

because you're not necessarily getting the DNA tests,

you're not necessarily getting first person's view

because the catch has been processed already,

so it can be really difficult.

Research published in Science Advanced

has found that transshipment activity

is widespread in distant water fishing fleets,

so any fishing fleet that goes beyond their national borders,

so they're exclusive economic zone,

especially in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

This practice can obscure where seafood was caught

and whether it was harvested legally.

Processing also removes many of the physical features,

which I mentioned, used to identify these species.

So just to go more into it,

whole fish that can be identified by characteristics

such as body shape, fin placement, or color patterns.

If that's not there,

when the seafood is processed into products

such as fish fillets, fish sticks,

serimi, and squid rings,

those identifying features disappear.

So once the seafood is reduced to small pieces

or ground products,

even experienced seafood inspectors that are at sea

cannot reliably identify the species visually.

So this is one of the reasons

why we rely heavily on DNA testing

to verify the seafood identity.

A landmark study published in PLOS-1

found that genetic testing revealed widespread seafood

mislabeling, particularly in processed products

where species identification was impossible

without the DNA analysis.

And DNA analysis didn't really come into the seafood industry

for a long time.

It's only been recent when we've been able to use that

on a regular basis,

but even then, it doesn't really come back as fast

as we would expect,

and it's really hard to do it

when you're doing like a port inspection

where the boat is dropping off their stuff

and going back as soon as they can.

Seafood also frequently travels

through multiple countries for processing.

So for example, Alaskan Pollock caught in the US waters

is often shipped to China for flaying and packaging

that export back to North America

or even Europe as frozen fish products.

So you would think that if you were able to bring it,

I mean, look at a climate change problem here

when you're shipping it halfway across the world

just to ship it back.

But when you are doing it that far,

you don't have control over how that's processed

or one country doesn't have control over

the other country of how that's processed.

You just trust that it becomes that seafood,

but they can be putting in,

and it doesn't matter what country,

they can be putting in other mixtures of seafood

that you just don't know is happening.

And especially when they're bringing it together

like a filet or a fish stick or something,

you don't know if it's just one fish

or if it's just like a blend of all these different fishes.

So this happens because processing costs

can be lower in large seafood processing hubs

overseas.

So that's why they go from the US to China

back to North America or even Europe.

So similarly, squid, which we're gonna be talking about

on Friday, an interview with Dr. Marin Cusa

caught in the Southwest Atlantic,

maybe processed in China or Vietnam,

then exported worldwide as frozen squid rings

or even calamari, which we all love in restaurants,

which I think I'm gonna have to change the way

I look at calamari after you hear Friday's episode.

You might wanna do it.

I know I'm going to do it after I did the interview.

You're gonna wanna do it after you hear that episode.

These complex processing routes make it difficult

for consumers to know where seafood actually originated.

Scientists and regulars are exploring new traceability tools

to address these challenges.

So DNA bar coding is obviously one.

It allows scientists to identify fish species

by analyzing the small fragments of genetic material.

Some researchers have used this method

to detect seafood substitution in restaurants,

grocery stores and supply chains,

which we'll talk about again on Friday.

The technique compares DNA from the seafood sample

to a global reference database of species.

Also, you had electronic catch documentation.

So governments are increasingly requiring

digital catch documentation.

So programs such as the USC Food Import Monitoring Program,

the SIMP, which is kind of an interesting acronym,

requires importers to report detailed catch information

including fish vessel identity, catch location

and harvest method.

But at least you'll be able to pass on that information.

Satellite tracking, which you talked a couple weeks ago,

tracking systems such as automatic identification systems,

so AIS and vessel monitoring systems,

VMS allow regulators and researchers

to track fishing vessels activity.

However, some of these fishing vessels

will actually turn off their AIS or VMS

when they're in areas they should not be in.

Organizations like global fishing watch,

analyze satellite data to detect fishing patterns

and potential illegal fishing.

There's also block train tracking systems.

So some seafood companies are experimenting

with blockchain technology,

which creates digital records,

which cannot be easily altered.

These systems allow seafood products

to be tracked through each step of the supply chain.

From the fishing vessel, all the way to the retailer.

So pilot programs have been tested in fisheries

such as tuna and shrimp supply chain,

and hopefully we'll be able to look at

what those studies reveal when they go through that testing.

So tomorrow we're gonna focus on a seafood product

where traceability is especially difficult.

We're gonna be talking about squid.

Unlike many fish species,

squid fisheries are often poorly monitored, highly globalized

and frequently processed before reaching markets.

So that combination makes squid

one of the hardest seafood products to track.

So if you want to learn more about that,

you want to tune in tomorrow's episode,

but you don't want to miss it.

Hit that follow button.

And also, if you think someone who wants to know more

about seafood is going to take value out of this

or get a lot of value out of this, send this episode

to them, see what they think.

I'd love to hear your feedback.

Go to speakupforblue.com,

forward slash feedback.

Let me know if you have a question, a comment, a concern.

How do you deal with seafood?

How are you enjoying these episodes?

How are you enjoying this new method

that I'm doing the five days a week,

four days, so a little Monday to Thursday,

and then an interview on Friday.

I'd love to hear all those thoughts,

any of those thoughts, just a little bit of those thoughts.

Go to speakupforblue.com, forward slash feedback.

Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode

of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

Have a great day.

We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.