TSSS 2022 focuses lens on human rights and decarbonization

The Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit (TSSS) 2022 was held 19 to 21 October, 2022, as a hybrid-live and online event. Hosting a variety of speakers and panelists, the event was sponsored by Nikkei BP and Seafood Legacy, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.

The event focused on human rights due diligence relating to seafood supply chains, providing an overview of efforts being undertaken by major market players to respond to growing international awareness of labor and human rights issues in seafood supply chains.

Speaking at the event, Seafood Ethics Action Alliance Chair Andy Hickman posed solutions through international collaboration and heightened corporate due diligence. Hickman said the seafood industry is harder than others to regulate due to the dangerous nature of commercial fishing, jurisdictional challenges, a heavy reliance on a migrant workforce, and complex, global supply chains.

Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) East Asia Manager Shaochi Chiu said there are close links between illegal fishing fishing and human rights abuses, as decreased catches, and lower profitability force fishers to cut labor costs. Chiu singled out China’s distant-water fleet, citing abuses uncovered in two EJF reports: “Murky Waters,” and “The Ever-Widening Net.”

The second day of TSSS 2022, Japan Fisheries Agency Director-General Takashi Koya detailed the sustainability advances in the country's recently released 2022 Fisheries White Paper. Koya outlined the nation's vision for transforming Japan's fisheries industry to a growth industry through sustainable development, such as introducing more efficient high-performance fishing vessels with energy-saving measures and larger carrying capacities. The new vessels would be capable of handling multiple fishing methods, such as squid-jigging and trawling.

Koya said Japan's government also backs the development of larger-scale aquculture operations, such as a demonstration salmon project by Nippon Steel that features submersible cages and a piped feeding system based on a steel offshore platform. He said the Japanese government wanted to help development commercial aquaculturing of scallops, pearls, yellowtail, and sea bream.

Also at TSSS 2022, Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability Executive Director Gregory Brown, introduced the GDST Standards for Interoperable Seafood Traceability Systems, which sets interoperability guidelines, critical tracking events, and key data elements to help entities more toward greater sustainability in their operations.

On the third day of TSSS 2022, Ayano Takeuchi, a junior associate professor in the department of environmental science of Toho University, called for coordination and co-development of fishing and offshore wind farms, with appropriate special planning, to avoid displacement of fishers from productive fishing grounds. 

Photo courtesy of okimo/Shutterstock