1. Innovations in seafood supply chains:
Community supported fisheries and consumer-facing traceability
Subproject 2: Exploring Community-Supported Fisheries and their Effect on the Triple Bottom Line of Fisheries in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Becca Aucoin
Rational: Fish harvesters are increasingly facing complex informational and sustainability demands. These are, in part, related to increasing market, regulatory and climate change risks. The aim of this research project is to study two innovative seafood governance approaches, namely community supported fisheries (CSF) and consumer-facing traceability (CFT), to ascertain their potential for helping to mitigate these risk and contribute to triple bottom line sustainability outcomes.
Background:
There is a great deal of uncertainty concerning the future of the world’s commercial fish stocks in an ever-changing political, economic, and environmental climate. Recent studies have illustrated the dire state of global commercial fish stocks. As overfishing continues to occur at an alarming rate, projections have shown that the ocean may be devoid of fish within our lifetime. Fisheries mismanagement is a local issue that has had global ramifications. There is a need for fisheries management reform and an overhaul of fisheries supply chains to allow for more sustainable and economically viable practices to be developed. There is also a need for resilient systems that can adapt to changes in species availability over time as our climate changes.
Yet the fisheries crisis is no longer just one of production, the crisis has expanded to being considered one of fisheries consumption. We have reached a point in time where consumers are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from. This connection to the seafood supply chain as well as other food sectors has led to an increased demand for locally-sourced and sustainable products and an increase in popularity and prevalence of community-supported fisheries, or CSFs. Based on the concept of community-supported agriculture, CSFs have been established in both coastal and in-land areas to solve a variety of problems within the seafood sector. CSFs, although diverse in mandate, tend to share some common properties, namely involving a shortened supply chain with a goal of increasing the sustainability of the fisheries structure in some way.
Figure 1: A conceptual model of the intersection between ecology, economics, and community, proposing that a community-supported fishery could increase the sustainability of each of these dimensions within the fishery sector
Framework and methods:
While it is argued that CSFs can lead to some improvements, the extent to which these benefits are spread over different sustainability dimensions remains understudied. A framework called the Fisheries Performance Indicators (Anderson et al, 2015), uses three metrics to examine the sustainability of a fishery; ecology, economics, and community, the so called “triple bottom line”. These pillars within fishing communities are highly interconnected and it is argued here that they could form a conceptual model through which the sustainability of a CSF can be assessed critically (Figure 1).
This project will explore the feasibility of implementing a CSF in Cape Breton based on these three sustainability factors through the use of interviews and focus groups with actors along the supply chain.
Management problem:
While fisheries management issues occur globally, I will use Cape Breton, Nova Scotia as a case study to explore how the use of a community-supported fishery can impact the “triple bottom line”. One of the major issues identified within the fisheries sector in Cape Breton is the current structure of the seafood supply chain. Fish harvesters have called for improved sales, marketing, and product development strategies along the supply chain that would allow a greater economic return as well as more control over where their catches are sold. The establishment of a community-supported fishery in Cape Breton could be the solution that fish harvesters are looking for.
The Question
How would the establishment of a community-supported fishery affect the triple bottom line of the local fishery in Cape Breton?
Potential results:
It is expected that the creation of a CSF in Cape Breton would yield positive results for all members along a shortened supply chain. Direct marketing would give more power to licence holders concerning where and how their catches are sold. Because this study is being approached from three sectors, it is likely that some sustainability elements within the project will be more positively impacted than others.
Sub-Questions
What would a community-supported fishery in Cape Breton look like (management structure, infrastructure, distribution model, supply chain, species composition)?
What is the triple bottom line? How would each element be impacted through the creation of a CSF (ecology, economy, community)?