Our oceans provide a range of goods and
services, many of which depend on healthy
ecosystems. The production of seafood, for local
consumption, or for trade as a soft commodity, is
one of the most widely recognized blue economy
services that a healthy ocean provides.
But unsustainable fishing in the
greatest threat to the health of ocean
ecosystems, and is compounded
by issues like climate change and
habitat destruction from coastal
development. Fisheries management
varies greatly from country to
country and from stock to stock,
from tightly regulated fisheries with
high transparency to situations with poor or limited management
and little independent observation
and validation. At the same time
human rights, worker safety and
labor violations in both aquaculture
production and wild capture (often
linked to illegal, unreported and
unregulated (IUU) fishing) are
increasingly, and appropriately in
the media spotlight revealing the
significant potential reputational,
market and regulatory risks
associated with parts of the seafood
industry. These risks – often
hidden through complex,
opaque, and transnational
supply chains – indirectly
affect financial institutions
(FIs) who provide capital to the
companies that participate in
the seafood industry.
