March 21, 2019 — Sustainable seafood consultancy and non-profit FishWise launched the Roadmap for Improving Seafood Ethics (RISE) website during Seafood Expo North America 2019, with the goal of creating a resource to streamline guidance and actionable steps seafood companies can take to understand the labor conditions throughout their supply chains.
The platform, which was developed in partnership with the seafood industry and leading conservation and human rights experts, also aids companies in making improvements to protect workers and to mitigate their own regulatory and reputational risks, according to FishWise.
“Seafood companies understand that their success depends on the well-being of the people who catch, raise, process, and transport the fish they sell, and they want to do the right thing,” Aurora Alifano, director of the social responsibility division at FishWise, said in a press release. “RISE offers the help many need to turn concern into action on labor rights.”
Conversations with seafood industry leaders revealed the high-priority status of labor rights and social issues for many companies, however, “capacity constraints and an abundance of information served as obstacles to getting started,” FishWise said.
“FishWise has worked on social issues in seafood for many years, even prior to revelations of forced labor in shrimp supply chains,” FishWise CEO Tobias Aguirre told SeafoodSource. “So, we pulled together and shared relevant information, allowing seafood companies and NGOs to better understand the issues. In 2017, we heard from companies that this was a hot-button issue, there were too many resources, they felt paralyzed, and didn’t know where to start. Last year, we set out to solve that problem by building RISE.”