Follow the herring – A case study on the interplay between management and markets for marine resource utilization

Abstract

Seafood offers opportunities for more sustainable diets through having a generally high nutritional value at lower environmental pressures relative to other animal protein. Opportunities for, and challenges of, seafood production and consumption are however context dependent. Here, a case study of Swedish fisheries for Atlantic herring Clupea harengus in the Baltic Sea is added to the scientific discourse. Motivated from a heated public debate in Sweden, the purpose is to provide a first sustainability assessment of current value chains: direct consumption versus fish meal and oil production. The case study highlights the importance of taking a value chain perspective for seafood from capture fisheries – i.e., the prerequisites, constraints and opportunities for different actors – and pay attention to misaligned economic incentives that may conflict sustainable use. Although lower greenhouse gas emissions, higher nutritional value, more affordable seafood for consumers and higher economic value for fishermen may be achieved by direct consumption of herring, several challenges exist. These include above all an urgent need to safeguard sustainable and equitable fisheries exploitation; current management is increasingly eroding opportunities for value chains producing herring for food. It is also vital with realistic expectations; redirecting more herring to direct consumption also requires strategies for how potential health risks can be reduced and consumer interest could increase. Overall, the study illustrates net-effects on marine resource utilization from interplay between actors along the value chain in various ways – with implications and insights of importance for a long-term sustainable Blue Economy.