Notes from the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit

FishWise’s Ashley Greenley traveled to Japan this month to attend the fifth annual Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit. Ashley, who leads FishWise’s Business Engagement Division, presented on a panel entitled, “Traceability and Regulation: Eliminating Illegal Seafood Products from the Market.” While sharing the stage with Japanese and European colleagues from the seafood industry and non-profit sectors, Ashley spoke to recent U.S. legislation (Seafood Import Monitoring Program) and business efforts to improve traceability in seafood supply chains.  

Ashley, representing FishWise’s initiative, Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT), also introduced SALT’s newly launched website as a resource for connecting global efforts on traceability and counter-IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing. The SALT website is timely, as a consistent theme throughout the panel discussion was the need for increased international coordination and collaboration to fight illegal fishing. Japan, in particular as the third-largest market for seafood imports, is well-positioned to learn from global efforts taking place in the EU and U.S. as it considers adopting its own import regulations.