Repository logo
 

A systematic review of the socioeconomic outcomes of the European Union’s trade-based measure for seafood sustainability.

Date

2023-05-30

Authors

Courtois, Marine

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Seafood is one of the most internationally-traded food commodities, creating opportunities for importing countries to exert influences on exporting countries via the control of market access. Over the past decade, global seafood market states have implemented a series of trade-based measures to improve transparency throughout international supply chains and, where possible, leverage market access to demand certain standards on the fishing practices and management in exporting states. The European Union’s IUU Regulation (EC No 1005/2008) is the most prominent and well-established of these trade-based measures, and is aimed at closing the European market to seafood harvested through Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Through a two stage process of warnings (yellow card) and import restrictions (red card), the EU-IUU Regulation has been applied to 27 countries, including Belize and Sri Lanka, which resulted in a ban on imports. It is now increasingly viewed as a model for other key seafood market states in promoting sustainable fisheries globally. This study is a systematic literature review, based on 53 research peer-reviewed research articles from 2010-2022, to assess the observed outcomes of the EU-IUU Regulation in terms of improvements in fisheries management and of the socioeconomic impacts on the affected fishing communities. Despite its presented initial goal of monitoring IUU fishing practices internationally, the regulation presents significant transparency and harmonization gaps, limiting its overall effectiveness. The unilaterality of the regulation and subsequent perceived unbalanced dynamics may represent one of its key weaknesses. Keywords : EU-IUU Regulation; policy; IUU fishing; trade-based measures; carding system; socio-economic impacts; management; power dynamics.

Description

Marine completed two internships, one for the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Program under the supervision of Dr. Wilf Swartz and the other at Deep Cove Aqua Farms Ltd. with Josh Nikoloyuk. During her internship with Ocean Nexus, Marine worked as a research assistant to assess the outcomes of the European Union’s trade-based measure on seafood sustainability based on existing academic literature. Through her internship at deep Cove Aqua Farms Ltd., Marine worked as a project coordinator with three other students to assess the feasibility of developing a sustainable shellfish aquaculture site on the southern Scotian shore. This internship helped shape Marine’s skillset on and off the field in collecting and analyzing data, identifying stakeholders and conducting community engagement. Completing two internships was challenging, but it allowed Marine to diversify her fisheries management capabilities by refining her area of expertise while using her background in marine sciences.

Keywords

Citation

Courtois, M. 2022. A systematic review of the socioeconomic outcomes of the European Union’s trade-based measure for seafood sustainability. [graduate project]. Halifax, NS: Dalhousie University.