Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions aims for bigger impact

The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions has announced a series of changes aimed at helping the seafood industry achieve greater adoption of sustainable practices and innovation. The changes are intended to support the organization’s 10-year goal of achieving 75 percent of global seafood production rated as environmentally sustainable or making verifiable improvement, and making sure safeguards are in place to ensure social responsibility. 

The goal is part of the organization’s mission to drive alignment between NGOs, businesses, scientists, seafood experts, and governments around the world.

“It is a very ambitious goal. It sets a waypoint for our community to work toward and it helps us to focus on the most impactful work,” CASS Executive Director Mariah Boyle said. “While a goal of this magnitude is not achievable by any one organization, we believe the collective impact of the Alliance community, working alongside the many important initiatives and collaborations in the sustainable and responsible seafood movement, can bring us within reach.”

The new Alliance Global Hub brings together more than 80 entities headquartered in 14 countries working to establish environmental sustainability and social responsibility in the production of seafood worldwide.

“We will focus on aligning and curating guidance for businesses and creating connections between markets and policy work, and will systematically track our progress against the 10-year goal,” Boyle said.

Additionally, CASS has added four new board members representing organizations headquartered in Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands, and China. The new board members are Kinship Fellow and SmartFish AC Executive Director Cecilia Blasco); Marah Hardt, a marine scientist, author, and director of discovery at Future of Fish; Helen Packer, the former head of Anova USA’s sustainability programs and lead of the Seafood Stewardship Index at World Benchmarking Association; and Pew Marine Conservation Fellow and Qingdao Marine Conservation Society President Songlin Wang.

“Steering the organization toward success and impact is an outcome only achieved if we have a symphony of voices representing a variety of lived experiences informing our efforts,” CASS Board Chair Jack Kittinger, who also serves as senior director of global fisheries and aquaculture at Conservation International, said in a press release. “The ability of the [CASS] board to point the community in the right direction is undoubtedly strengthened by the addition of these outstanding leaders.”

Other CASS board members are FishWise CEO Tobias Aguirre; Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Program Director Indrani Lutchman; and Global Aquaculture Alliance COO Brian Perkins.

Photo courtesy of kehuang/Shutterstock