Tell NOAA to Ensure All Seafood is Traceable

Whether you enjoy seafood, or care deeply about the oceans or human rights, it's important to ensure that imported seafood is sourced responsibly. Illegal fishing and human rights abuses should not be part of our seafood dinners.

Most of the seafood sold in the United States is imported from other countries like China. But not all of it is safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced, and honestly labeled. Illegal fishing, including fishing without authorization or disregarding conservation measures, can deplete fisheries, destroy habitat, and kill marine wildlife.

The consequences of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and seafood fraud extend beyond environmental and humanitarian concerns, with economic impacts felt across the domestic U.S. fishing and processing industries. Seafood fraud threatens our health and safety, cheats consumers with higher prices for mislabeled fish of lower value, and hides harmful practices like illegal fishing, poorly regulated aquaculture, and human rights abuses.

As a seafood consumer, environmental champion, or human rights advocate, you possess the power to drive change. By asking questions, making informed choices, and using your voice to demand traceable supply chains and accountability — from both seafood suppliers and policymakers alike – you can make a real difference.

Tell the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to require catch documentation and traceability for all seafood today.

petition letter

Ms.

Alexa

Cole

NOAA

Dear Ms. Alexa Cole,

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing poses a significant threat to the environment, exacerbating the already fragile state of our oceans. IUU fishing contributes to overfishing, habitat destruction, and undermines efforts to conserve and responsibly manage fish stocks. Activities such as using prohibited gear like driftnets can increase the bycatch of protected species like sharks, turtles, and dolphins, and some gear can physically damage the surrounding habitat like coral reefs, seamounts, and other vulnerable ecosystems. The cumulative effects of IUU fishing threaten the long-term sustainability of marine resources and compromise the resilience of marine ecosystems to climate change and other stressors.

The U.S. has tools in place to help combat IUU fishing and prevent seafood produced with forced labor and other human rights abuses from entering our markets. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) requires catch documentation and traceability for some seafood products and is intended to function as both a screening tool and a deterrent against IUU fishing. However, the program currently only covers 13 species and species groups, which is less than half of the seafood imports entering U.S. markets.

I recommend:

* Expanding the catch documentation and traceability requirements of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) to all seafood.

* Improving SIMP implementation by updating the key data elements and critical tracking events collected to better analyze the data and inform risk-based screening, audits, and enforcement. KDEs should include beneficial owner of harvesting and transshipment vessels and processing facilities, and the maritime mobile service identity number and automatic identification system device of the harvesting and transshipment vessel.

* Requiring prior notification of the information the SIMP inspections. The data should be submitted 72 hours in advance of product entry to evaluate the veracity of the catch information before the product has been released onto the market.

Combatting IUU fishing is essential in the fight against unsustainable fishing practices that damage our oceans. While seafood is one of the most popular foods in the United States, consumers are routinely given little or no information about where their seafood is from or how it is impacting our environment. Requiring all seafood imports to be subject to robust catch documentation and traceability from boat to plate would give Americans more confidence that the seafood they are eating isn’t contributing to the destruction of our oceans.

Kind regards, 
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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