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The Seafood Label Problem Most Shoppers Never Notice · How To Protect The Ocean

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  When you buy seafood at the grocery store, the label might say something simple.
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  Salmon, tuna, cod.
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  But those labels often hide more information than they reveal.
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  In many cases, consumers have almost no idea what species they're actually
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  eating or where it came from, and that lack of transparency has become a
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  major issue in global seafood markets.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekday Ocean news update.
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  If you care about staying informed on the Ocean every weekday, hit
• 0:29
  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's story.
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  So the key question today is what information do seafood labels actually
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  provide, and what information is missing?
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  That's really the question here.
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  So, seafood labeling rules vary widely in the world.
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  In major markets, labels include only a few pieces of basic information.
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  May have like a common market name, so what you know, cod,
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  salmon, tuna, that kind of stuff.
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  The country of origin and whether the seafood was farmed or wild cod.
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  But in many cases, the labels don't include the exact scientific species
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  name, which is really, really important.
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  We'll talk about that in a second.
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  The catch location or the fishing area?
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  The fishing method used, and the vessel, or the fleet that it was caught in.
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  So even just like the registration flag where this vessel was registered.
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  Without this information, it becomes difficult for consumers to understand
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  what they're actually buying.
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  And the issue becomes even more complicated because many market names
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  represent multiple different species.
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  For example, the label snapper can represent more than 60
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  different species worldwide.
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  60. The label tuna can refer to several species with very
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  different population statuses.
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  The term rockfish includes dozens of species of the Genus Sybaris.
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  Some of these species are abundant, others are heavily
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  fished or under strict management.
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  But when they're grouped under one simple in the market name, consumers
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  cannot easily tell the difference.
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  It's really difficult.
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  Knowing the scientific species name, you can actually get
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  what the common names are.
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  So you'll have one species name, which is like a Latin name, and once you have
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  that Latin name, it'll list all the different, like if I search up Latin
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  names in ChatGPT, or even on Google or Gemini, whatever that might be.
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  I don't know what we're searching in these days.
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  If I search a scientific name, you'll get all the common names that they're commonly
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  referred to and you'll see that there are multiple common names and that just could
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  mean the different parts of the world.
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  Different countries are found.
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  They might have like a Spanish name, they might have an English name.
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  Even within an English name they'll be called different things
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  or known for different things.
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  So just having a common name doesn't necessarily mean that you're
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  eating the species you think you're eating, but having that scientific
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  name really brings it to that area.
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  Also, the vessel or fleet that caught the fish, making sure that you know
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  what country that vessel or fleet we're registered to is really important.
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  'cause that will tell you whether that country is known for good
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  fisheries practices or not so good fisheries practices.
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  Some countries are known for not regulating or not managing the illegal,
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  unregulated, and unreported fisheries.
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  So IUU fishing, which is a big problem when we look at overfishing.
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  And so some countries have a really bad reputation for that.
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  Others have a really good reputation.
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  So a lot of the vessels will register under the countries that do not have a
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  good reputation for it, because it's easier to get away with IUU fishing.
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  You get it?
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  So that's how it really works.
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  So what does the science say?
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  Researchers studying seafood supply chains have repeatedly found that
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  the lack of species level labeling creates major transparency gaps.
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  A global analysis of seafood labeling and traceability found
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  that the seafood products often pass through multiple intermediates.
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  So including processors, distributors, and wholesalers
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  before reaching consumers.
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  In some cases, after the fishers catch the fish, they give it to
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  somebody like, give it to a company.
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  And they actually don't know where their product is sold.
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  That's been documented a number of times, especially there was one place in North
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  Carolina where it was documented, where the fishers didn't know where it went.
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  It got handed off a number of different times and it would end up in New York or
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  end up in Seattle, or end up anywhere.
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  But they had no idea who was buying their fisheries.
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  That's why a lot of fishers that are local have gone to local catch shares
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  where people pay into a program and they will get certain fish out of that,
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  they'll get a certain amount of fish out of that, depending on how much they pay.
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  So like if they have a catch share and you pay like $200, you
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  may get $200 worth of fish.
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  The Fisher knows who it's going to locally, which is
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  really great for the fisher.
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  And the consumer knows who caught it.
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  They know their families, they know everything.
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  And it's kind of nice to have that, that relationship.
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  It kind of brings it back home.
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  It kind of brings pride back into the Fishers.
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  I'm not a fisher.
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  But I know fishermen and fishing communities have a lot of pride in their
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  work, and I'm sure they would wanna see it go to people that they know and that
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  they can know will enjoy their fish.
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  So at each step of the supply chain, information about species identity
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  or catch origin can be lost or simplified into these broad categories.
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  So another study examined seafood labeling in North America and found
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  that market names frequently group multiple species together, making
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  it difficult for buyers to know exactly where they were purchasing.
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  This is not necessarily illegal.
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  In many cases, it is simply how seafood regulations were designated decades ago.
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  But the result is a marketplace where species level
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  transparency is often missing.
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  A solution to that is to update these regulations, update the marketplace,
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  making sure that transparency is forward thinking in the policy,
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  in the regulations, in the law.
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  So why does this matter?
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  Why do we care from a consumer's point of view, from my point of view, like
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  why am I telling you why labeling is important and a lack of information
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  labeling is not a good thing?
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  When seafood is sold under broad market names instead of specific
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  species, several problems emerge.
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  First, it becomes harder to detect seafood fraud.
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  If you have the transparency, you know the species, you know where it's gone
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  throughout the entire supply chain, it's really hard to sell fraudulent seafood
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  or even pass on fraudulent seafood.
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  Second, fisheries managers have more difficulty tracking which species
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  are actually being sold and consumed.
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  And third, consumers who want to make sustainable seafood choices often do
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  not have the information they need.
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  A great example is anytime I go to the supermarket and I ask the person behind
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  the counter, and usually it's like, you know, something like a teenager
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  or someone who's just trying to get their job, trying to get their pay.
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  Whether it's minimum wage as a student or student wage, or
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  somebody else's been there forever.
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  If they don't know much about the fish, they don't know where it came from,
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  how it was caught, where it was caught, it makes the process really difficult.
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  And to be honest, it shouldn't be up to the person behind the counter.
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  It should be up to the labels that are on the actual packaging.
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  So, for example, two fish labeled as tuna may come from completely
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  different fisheries and completely different geographies with very
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  different environmental impacts.
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  But the label does not always reveal the difference.
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  This lack of transparency creates blind spots across the
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  entire seafood supply chain.
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  Tomorrow we're gonna look at how scientists discovered that seafood
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  labels are sometimes not just vague.
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  They're just sometimes wrong.
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  DNA testing has revealed widespread seafood mislabeling
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  in markets around the world.
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  We're going to really dive deep into fraud and the results,
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  it may surprise you.
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  But if you like this information and you want to know more, please hit that follow
• 6:59
  button so you don't miss the next episode.
• 7:00
  And if you know someone who may benefit from this, whether it's another Marine
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  biologist or you know, someone who's really involved in the Ocean, or someone
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  who loves seafood and they want to have more sustainable choices or better pick
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  the choices, send this to them right now.
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  That's how we get this community larger.
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  That's how we get more people talking about the Ocean.
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  'Cause this is the beginning of a conversation, I would
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  love for you to continue it.
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  You can give me feedback or you can have questions,
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  comments, or anything like that.
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  If you go to speak up for blue.com/feedback, that's
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  speak up for blue.com/speak.
• 7:29
  Feedback, the link is in the show notes.
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  If you wanna just click on that, I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this.
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  I would love to hear your experiences when you buy seafood
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  and do you find it confusing?
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  Do you look for labels, all that kinda stuff.
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  Love to hear your thought.
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  But until next time, I wanna thank you for joining me on today's episode of
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  the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.