The fraudulent labelling of fish products is a serious threat to global seafood markets, with 24% to 50% of species mislabelled, states Word Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) manager of seafood-market transformation and the sustainable fisheries programme John Duncan.

This not only has health implications for consumers who could be allergic to certain species but also affects sustainability as seafood companies are fooling consumers by labelling unsustainable and often illegal species as sustainable.

With the acute rise in seafood demand over the last few decades and the increasing globalisation of the seafood trade, many countries’ regulatory systems have been unable to adapt fast enough to effectively control the seafood trade, resulting in increased fraud and the mislabelling of seafood products becoming common practice, he points out.

With many different species entering the South African market, owing to an increase in demand for fish products, it is increasingly common practice for seafood companies to fabricate names for species with unpopular names or to label overseas species with common South African names, such as kingklip.

In response to this growing challenge, WWF-SA has initiated a collaborative project with the South African seafood industry aimed at developing a legislated list of acceptable common market names for seafood products. The first stakeholder meeting was held in November last year.

“As WWF-SA does not have the regulatory powers to imple- ment labelling regulations, the project involves the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Depart-ment of Health and the Depart-ment of Trade and Industry as well as industry stakeholders,” says Duncan.

These departments need to ensure that the correct labelling of fish is undertaken by seafood traders so that labels accurately reflect what they are selling, he stresses.

“This will enable seafood consumers to make purchasing decisions based on the correct information and it will level the playing field between responsible operators and those who act unscrupulously,” Duncan notes, adding that WWF-SA feels the project will be a success because the majority of stakeholders are keen to assist and stamp out practices, such as mislabelling which pose a threat to responsible seafood businesses.

State of Fishing Industry

Most of South Africa’s offshore resources are harvested by large industrial operations, with only a certain number of harbours at which fish can be offloaded, enabling effective regulation of these fisheries and their catches. “South Africa’s hake trawl fishery is one of the best-managed fisheries in South Africa, to the extent that it is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified,” Duncan notes.

Most offshore fisheries are managed on a total allowable catch basis, which is enforced by the DAFF. This limits the volume of the various fish species that may be captured in a year by fishing rights holders to ensure catches remain at sustainable levels.

The inshore fisheries, how- ever, pose a problem to sustainable fishing practices, Duncan notes, as many species, such as red stumpnose and black musselcracker, are dwindling, with less than 10% of these populations left compared with their pristine unfished stocks.

The DAFF is responsible for managing these fisheries too. However, the inshore sector is a far more contested space. Within this zone small-scale artisanal, large-scale commercial, subsistence and recreational fishermen all have access to inshore fish- eries, which complicates adequate regulation.

“There are a lack of resources to regulate the inshore fishery industry and a similar lack of fisheries resources to meet all the needs of all fishermen who are currently dependant on the ocean for their livelihoods,” he stresses, adding that penalties for fishing illegally are also not strictly enforced.

“There are admission of guilt fines both for members of the public who have been caught fishing without a licence and commercial fisheries who have broken permit conditions, but this is not enough,” highlights Duncan, who notes that many recreational fishermen are not aware that they require a permit to fish.

He stresses that environmental crimes are not viewed as serious by South Africa’s legal system and judges are less likely to impose harsh penalties on lawbreakers. “This emphasises the need for a dedicated court to deal with environmental challenges,” urges Duncan.

Sustainable Fishing Initiative

He

further notes that WWF-SA aims to empower fisher- men to fish in a sustainable manner and has been working throughout the seafood supply chain for the last five years to develop sustainable seafood commitments from the key companies involved. This involves restaurants and retail outlets agreeing to source only sustainable seafood species – those that appear on the WWF’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (WWF-SASSI’s) green list, by a certain date.

WWF-SASSI was initiated in 2004 and is responsible for assessing the sustainability of the most popular seafood species on the South African market as either green (best choice), orange (think twice) or red (avoid).

The first list was released in 2005, but WWF-SA is continuously updating consumers and retailers on the sustainability of the most popular species as they improve or get worse, he explains, adding that this creates an incentive for fisheries to improve their operations and move on to the green list in recognition of their improved practices.

“Snoek is on WWF-SASSI’s green list, as the population is healthy and fast-breeding, while red steenbras is on the red list, as the population is slow-growing and currently below 3%,” Duncan states.

The WWF-SASSI orange list includes species that cause concern, either because they are depleted as a result of overfishing and cannot replenish under sustained current fishing pressure, or because the fishing or farming method used poses harm to the environment and/or the biology of the species.

Another organisation working in this field is the MSC, which is the world’s leading ecolabel for wild capture fisheries. By working with fisheries to help them comply with MSC standards in return for preferential procurement from responsible seafood traders and consumers, WWF can help to drive the market for sustainably caught seafood, which will greatly contribute towards a sustainable fishing industry worldwide.

Duncan concludes that the WWF-SA works closely with many companies in the fishing industry, as well as the regulators and recognises the importance of having a healthy and sustainable fishery industry for the livelihood and food security it creates.

“We aim to promote a sustainable fishing industry, not stop fishing.”