Accurate data and assessments are cornerstones of well-managed fisheries. But only about 17-25% of stocks globally are assessed for stock status.

The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation (SFP), through their innovation project, commits to adopting and fostering universal fishery identifiers (IDs) as an integral part of fisheries and seafood business operations and transactions. SFP aims to improve fisheries management through a more transparent flow of information through the seafood supply chain, and to discourage harmful practices, such as forced labor or slaying of vulnerable species as bycatch.

The outcome of the project will be a public database of fishery IDs to be hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the validation of the Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries, which is the world’s first database of unique fisheries and IDs.

SFP will test the IDs in two different supply chains: one representing a small-scale fishery in the Philippines; and the other, representing an industrial fishery in Namibia. These pilots will inform their final deliverable, which is a business plan for how best to deploy the IDs to the rest of the global seafood industry and its stakeholders using existing and new technologies.

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS: Progress summary as of November 2022 (PDF)