Driving change in South East Asian trawl fisheries, fishmeal supply, and aquafeed Report to IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organisation and the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) by Duncan Leadbitter Director Fish Matter Pty Ltd August, 2019 1 About the Project sponsors IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organisation IFFO represents the marine ingredients industry worldwide. IFFO’s members reside in more than 50 countries, account for over 50% of world production and 75% of the fishmeal and fish oil traded worldwide. Approximately 5 million tonnes of fishmeal are produced each year globally, together with 1 million tonnes of fish oil. IFFO’s headquarters are located in London in the United Kingdom and it also has offices in Lima, Peru, and in Beijing, China. IFFO is an accredited Observer to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). To find out more, visit www.iffo.net. The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) The Global Aquaculture Alliance is an international, non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, GAA has become the leading standards-setting organization for aquaculture seafood. To find out more, visit https://www.aquaculturealliance.org/ 2 Executive Summary Information is generally lacking about South East Asian (SEA) fisheries in terms of their biology, fishing practices, and environmental impact, as well as their contributions for social (e.g. employment, food security implications), or economic (e.g. value, trade dynamics) factors. Some social and fisheries management issues are well known and attract criticism right across the fisheries, fishmeal/oil, aquafeed, aquaculture, seafood and retail sectors. This is true both in the SEA region and beyond, where some of the markets for the regional products extend. It is challenging to assess long-term viability, yet these fisheries are of key importance to direct and indirect food security in the region and globally, and represent a societal vulnerability. What is needed urgently is an understanding of these fisheries from the perspective of social, economic and environmental sustainability and to apply this understanding to much needed reform to bring an end to overfishing. The regional challenge with fisheries management is reflected within the raw material supply of marine ingredients for aquafeed, and hence, aquaculture. The SEA fisheries provide a large volume of raw material for fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) production, which is supplied into the aquafeed markets in SEA for manufacture of feed for the regional aquaculture industry. The development and implementation of certification standards for aquafeeds has placed additional emphasis on the importance of sourcing responsibly-produced and sustainable feed ingredients, and the importance of sourcing fishmeal and fish oil through certification schemes such as the IFFO RS is now being brought to the fore. The main fisheries in Thailand and Vietnam (the two focal countries for this report) are generally very different from those that supply raw material for FMFO production in the countries that are better known as marine ingredient producers. There are some key differences between the well- known cold water fisheries for small pelagic fish species in regions such as South America and northern Europe when compared to the tropical waters of South East Asia. These include: protein and oil content; variability in supply volume, species numbers and population structures; use of trimmings and byproduct; and, fisheries bycatch. Fishery level impacts and management challenges are covered in detail in the report. Most of the raw material for FMFO production is sourced from the trawl sector in Thailand and Vietnam with a smaller volume from the purse seine sector. These fisheries are targeted for food fish. Trawls produce about half of the seafood in these two countries although exact figures for Vietnam are difficult to find. Trawling has been labelled as ‘destructive’ (FAO 2010) but there is abundant evidence that the negative effects can be mitigated via proper management measures such as closed areas/seasons, suitable mesh sizes and effort controls. Multispecies fisheries, of the types common in tropical countries, have proven challenging to manage. These fisheries may contain over one hundred targeted food fish species, and as a consequence are extremely complex in nature. They bring to the fore the sorts of trade-offs between jobs, production, stock status and environmental protection that can be found to differing degrees in all fisheries. Ancillary to this project are several related projects, some of which have been managed by IFFO and IFFO RS, which aim to develop methods for evaluating such fisheries and putting in place workable management regimes, based on global best practice. The primary audiences for this paper are the industry groups associated with these two associations and, whilst detailed, it is not designed to be so technical as to be inaccessible to all. Both IFFO and GAA are interested in fish for the future. The IFFO Responsible Sourcing scheme has established an Improver Programme that has a structured programme for fisheries that want to meet the level of environmental performance required by the certification program open to fishmeal/oil production 3 facilities. This programme (https://www.iffors.com/about-improver-programme) conforms with the generally accepted requirements of other similar programmes by requiring transparent and accountable improvements in fisheries management. The GAA, via the Best Aquaculture Practices certification program allows access the certified feed supply chains for fisheries that are in an approved Fishery Improvement Project (FIP). Section 7 of the report deals in detail with the rationale for and operation of FIPs and both IFFO and GAA recognise the power of market demand as an incentive for step-change. As has occurred over several decades for hundreds of companies involved in food fish production around the world, the feed industry has recognised that there is much to be gained by acting to drive improvements in fisheries. Whilst Thailand and Vietnam are not the only countries where improvements in fisheries management are needed, they represent two important examples where there are opportunities for industry and government to work together to pursue the benefits of responsible production, and certification within the seafood supply chain. Detailed evaluations of other opportunities may be conducted as future Improver Programmes and FIPs are fully rolled out. The management of multispecies fisheries (including, but not restricted to, trawl fisheries) remains a challenging area for all stakeholders. These fisheries can be found all over the world, not just in tropical developing countries. The refinement of management approaches is an area of active development by international and national fisheries agencies and is also an area where industry support would be welcome. IFFO RS has already contributed in this area with funding assistance from the US based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a general recommendation for further engagement in helping develop guidance for change is put forward. 4 Foreword South East Asian reduction fisheries are a major part of the global catch for the reduction sector (fisheries that produce fish meal and oil), and SE Asian countries comprised six of the top 15 countries for fishmeal production in 2016, accounting for 46 percent of production among the top 15 countries. While some environmental and social problems in these fisheries have come to light in recent years, there remains a great shortage of data. With this in mind, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership welcomes the publication of this new report on South East Asian trawl fisheries. This report provides some of the best information available on the fisheries of Thailand and Vietnam, tracks the decline in fisheries health starting in the 1960s, and highlights some of the critical challenges facing these fisheries today. These include poor management, weak enforcement, inadequate science and data, inappropriate fishing gear, and overfishing (as well as documented labor abuses). The report also highlights that with adequate science and oversight, these fisheries could be highly efficient. The recommendations at the end of the report outline a number of pathways to support and inform improvements, and highlight how industry can collaborate for positive change. Industry efforts to date have helped secure formal government action in both Vietnam and Thailand to reduce the massive overcapacity of the fishing fleets, an essential step to reversing decades of overfishing. Much remains to be done, and it is critical the pace and scale of improvement accelerates. To help achieve this, the principal customers for fishmeal and oil – the aquaculture industry – are stepping up demands that fisheries improve, and providing more pathways forward. Leading aquaculture certifications are making it a requirement that fishmeal and fish oil are sourced from fisheries that are either sustainable or improving through a structured Fishery Improvement Project. Certifications are now emerging that can provide effective assurance that mixed species fisheries are well managed. Specifically, in the fall of 2018, the IFFO Responsible Supply (IFFO RS) Improvers Program launched a pilot to test new criteria developed to assess multispecies fisheries.