Fisheries performance indicators for assessing the ecological sustainability of wild-caught seafood products in Europe
The increasing global demand for seafood has intensified pressure on marine resources and hence the need to adopt sustainable fishing practices and promote sustainable products. Raising consumer awareness about the variability in ecological sustainability of seafood is an important tool to facilitate prevention of marine resource overexploitation, minimise the impact of fishing on ecosystems, and ensure long-term renewal of aquatic resources. Here we propose a simple but comprehensive and generic assessment framework with three indicators that inform on the impact of fishing practices on seabed habitats, fish stock status, and bycatch risk of sensitive species for any given product, whether domestically caught or imported, based on publicly available information. A rating scale from 1 to 5 is used for clarity and effectiveness in communicating the respective risks. The indicators provide a user-friendly tool for consumers, policymakers, and industry professionals to make informed decisions about seafood sustainability. Our results show contrasted ecological risks among the main fishing methods, which is crucial for value chain actors for making informed choices that support sustainable fishing practices. Our method enables scientifically proven practices for mitigating by-catches of sensitive species to be accounted for. A clear, transparent, fair and adaptable scoring system can enhance societal awareness and steer the market towards more sustainable seafood products. • A transparent ecological sustainability scoring system for fisheries products is proposed. • It considers fishing impacts on exploited resources, the seabed, and sensitive species. • It would enable societal actors to make informed choices to foster sustainability. • It highlights ecological risks associated with certain fishing methods.
Authors
- Fabio Grati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1793-303X)
- Jérôme Guitton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6654-708X)
- Didier Gascuel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5447-6977)
- Christine Absil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5166-9607)
- Alessandro Lucchetti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8418-9848)
- Vjekoslav Tičina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3686-9563)
- Giuseppe Scarcella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6540-1997)
- Tiit Raid
- Stefanos Kalogirou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-9236)
- Josep Lloret (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3917-1152)
- Gianna Fabi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6111-1201)
- Clara Ulrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7598-2051)
- Gildas Glemarec (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1801-3179)
- Dimitrios K. Moutopoulos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5873-9893)
- Druon Jean-Noel
- Armelle Jung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9487-7043)
- Anna Rindorf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4290-3983)
- Ane Iriondo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7340-8312)
- Sara Hornborg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0814-5258)
- Christos D. Maravelias (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2440-3707)
- Antonello Sala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7066-1152)
- Martina Scanu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3212-7378)
- François Bastardie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2669-6179)
- Sara Bonanomi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2236-9015)
- Daniel Li Veli
Institutions
- Agricultural University of Athens (GR)
- Institute of the Estonian Language (EE)
- University of Thessaly (GR)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Ifremer (FR)
- University of Patras (GR)
- École nationale d'ingénieurs de Brest (FR)
- RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (SE)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- AZTI (ES)
- Institut Català de Ciències del Clima (ES)
- Joint Research Centre (IT)
- National Research Council (IT)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
- Published
- 2025-02-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2025.100632
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Marine and fisheries research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.21
Funders
- European Commission