How can fisheries contribute more to a sustainable future?

Food production based on capture fisheries has many advantages compared to land-based animal production. Seafood from fisheries is generally a healthier choice and has often a lower carbon footprint, and does not require for example, land and use of pesticides. But how can its full potential be unlocked?

The oceans harbour half the global primary production but produce only 2% of our food. This project takes a step back and deliberately try to ignore current practices and beliefs as we reimagine their role: What would fisheries look like if UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Convention on Biological Diversity were allowed to define the objectives?

Project aims:

Use food systems analysis of fisheries embedded within marine ecology to find ways fisheries can produce more food at reduced environmental impact.
Compare fisheries with other food systems to identify where seafood may alleviate global trade-offs between planetary boundaries.
Measure and analyse how values, psychological mechanisms, and ethics may foster action and a bottom-up, fact-based transition towards improved sustainability.

The project is interdisciplinary and collaborate with the seafood industry, conservation and Norway’s government agency advising and implementing seafood policy.

RISE role is to provide expertise on sustainability assessment of seafood supply chains to identify how to account for and improve the sustainability of seafood production systems.