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2017 Autumn | Agriculture and Food Systems, Education & Outreach, Environmental Justice

Impacts of Environmental and Social Sustainability Certification on Commercial Fisheries

Student(s):

Riley Smith

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Glenn Reid

Partner(s):

  • Pacific Seafood Processor’s Association (PSPA)

Faculty advisor(s):

Chris Anderson Fisheries Economist, Associate Professor, University of Washington

The recent exposure of egregious human rights violations in commercial fisheries has created a movement to incorporate labor standards into existing environmental sustainability certification for fishery products. My internship with the PSPA researched the labor, human rights and environmental practices of the Alaska fishery to assess the level of adherence to the Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS), a vessel-based certification scheme with a focus on ensuring fair, documented and transparent environmental and human rights standards in commercial fisheries. A literature review of the impacts of sustainability certification on agro-food trade industries discovered biases towards industrialized fisheries. My analysis proposes avenues for unbiased, more inclusive and holistic sustainability certification for commercial fisheries.