Abstract
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood supply chain fraud are multifaceted problems that demand multifaceted solutions. Here, we investigate the extent to which global fisheries trade data analyses can support effective seafood traceability and promote sustainable seafood markets using one of the world’s most highly prized, yet misunderstood, groups of fishes as a model: the snappers, family Lutjanidae. By collating and comparing production, import and export data from international and national statistical collections for the period 2006–2013, we show that official trade data severely lack the level of detail required to track snapper trade flows, uncover potential IUU activities and/or inform exploitation management of snappers and related species. Moreover, we contend that the lack of taxonomic granularity and use of vague generic names in trade records represent one of the most insidious impediments to seafood traceability, and suggest that widely used harmonised commodity classification systems should evolve to address these gaps.
Highlights
Against a backdrop of stagnating marine capture fisheries, global seafood consumption is on the rise and fish has transitioned into one of the world’s most heavily traded food commodities[1]
The quality of the data reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is largely contingent on the quality of that data provided by its member countries
While it is acknowledged that FAO reported fishery landings often underestimate takings from IUU, subsistence and recreational fishing[30], one of the objectives of trade data analyses is to assist in approximating the magnitude of this unreported catch[12]
Summary
Against a backdrop of stagnating marine capture fisheries, global seafood consumption is on the rise and fish has transitioned into one of the world’s most heavily traded food commodities[1]. The US Presidential IUU Task Force recently declared ‘snapper’ as a ‘high risk’ species for IUU fishing and market fraud[22], and called for enhancements to traceability measures and the specificity of US harmonised tariff codes to better identify such species in trade[23]. This comes as little surprise considering that up to 77% of products sold in the US as ‘red snapper’ have been found to be substituted with other species[24]. In Indonesia’s Arafura Sea, over 90% of demersal fishes (predominantly snappers) harvested in the longline fishery between 1980 and 2005 were defined as unreported, while 5% were illegally caught[25]
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