Seafood Fraud: Integrating Provenance, Sustainability, Traceability, and Governance

As the 2030 deadline for the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) fast approaches, finding innovative ways to sustainably manage and control the global ocean and freshwater fisheries as set out in SDG 14 “life below water” and SGD 15 “life on land targets,” has never been more important. This thematic issue seeks to draw together articles that consider the cross-disciplinary topic of seafood fraud, or indeed the expanded concept of bluefoods—animals, plants, and algae harvested from freshwater and marine environments—which have consequences for the environment, human health and wellbeing, seafood businesses, and the consumer. We anticipate that contributors will tackle issues that deal with improving traceability and embracing the use of provenance testing and technologies at all stages of seafood production to address food system sustainability; strengthening international and local governance and regulations to limit the landing and on-selling of illegal, unreported, unregulated, and unethical catches via muddied supply chains; and introduce and share workable strategies to overcome land and sea challenges and manage risks. We also welcome contributions focusing on other harvested or produced aquatic resources vulnerable to fraud, that jeopardise management, conservation, and SDG targets. We encourage contributions from all disciplines including science, law, engineering, economics, criminology, social science, and industry to better inform consumers towards making environmentally and socially conscious “boat to plate” decisions.

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