Large seafood companies face climate-related risks across their operations, with substantial economic and financial implications. Nevertheless, corporate reporting remains limited, with nearly half of the 100 largest companies providing no climate-related disclosures. Reporting, which can be an indicator of action and priorities, has focused primarily on mitigation, with little attention to adaptation. We consider these gaps and propose four priorities to support capacity and pathways for climate-resilient seafood operations.
Adaptations to sustain fish consumption rarely quantify nutritional outcomes. We introduce a simple ‘fish meals’ approach that translates catch into per capita dietary protein intake recommended by the World Health Organisation. The approach is applied to an adaptation to help small-scale fishers catch tuna more efficiently – installing anchored fish aggregating devices (aFADs) in nearshore waters – and is readily scalable to other fish-based interventions to support nutrition security.
Shark ecotourism is increasingly promoted as a nature-based solution for ocean sustainability, yet empirical evidence of its long-term impacts on conservation behavior remains limited. We employed a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design to evaluate whether participation in a shark ecotourism program in Hawaiʻi influenced individual conservation behavior over time. Survey data were collected from tour participants and a general public comparison group at the time of the tour and again two years later. Using a Bayesian model for quasi-experimental repeated cross-section with inverse-probability weighting and attrition adjustment to account for baseline differences, we find that participation in the program was associated with a 40% increase [26%, 55%] in the likelihood of engaging in shark conservation behavior two years post-tour. While overall conservation engagement increased among all respondents during the study period, this sustained effect of program participation provides suggestive evidence that this form of experiential nature-based tourism can produce durable pro-environmental behavior. By identifying common forms of engagement (e.g., social media, donations) and key barriers to deeper involvement, our findings offer actionable insights for inclusive and scalable marine conservation strategies.
The international community has committed to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, and satellite monitoring can now detect industrial fishing inside marine protected areas (MPAs) at near-global scale. Yet remote detection establishes only a vessel’s identity, position, time, and movement; whether those facts can support enforcement action depends on how the law is written. We analysed the regulatory text of 9740 MPA zones and 119 national legal instruments across 15 countries. A Regulation Preparedness Index shows that MPA rules are rarely drafted in terms that remote evidence can prove: the mean score is 33 of 100, 61% of zones contain discretionary language, and only 4% refer to vessel monitoring or satellite systems. A screening of national legislation for evidentiary, penalty, enforcement, technology, and liability provisions gives a mean of 47 of 100, and no country scores above 50 on both layers. Rewriting rules as spatially explicit, unconditional prohibitions with vessel-tracking and reporting obligations would more than double the mean index (to 76), an index-internal upper bound that requires formal amendment but no new technology. We set out the drafting elements that make satellite detections actionable, in coastal waters and under the new high seas treaty.
Governments around the world have identified distant water fleets (DWFs) as a key threat to ecosystem health, domestic economic opportunities, and food security. With a high prevalence of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in countries where DWFs operate, the aquatic foods caught by DWFs represent a vital opportunity to shift policy and improve nutrition outcomes. To better understand this issue, we conducted a literature review and expert interviews to develop a framework of relationships between DWFs and food security. We then applied the framework to three unique case studies to describe the mechanisms underlying DWF-food security interactions. Our findings highlight the potential for diverse policy pathways to improved food and nutrition outcomes. The research suggests that integrating food systems expertise and nutrition metrics into management and licensing negotiations could serve to illuminate the true tradeoffs of DWF access and steer policy to ensure an equitable flow of benefits to local communities.
