This image shows from sea to table to trash how seafood is wasted. Credit: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests. 
 
 The findings, published in the November issue of Global Environmental Change, come as food waste in general has been in the spotlight and concerns have been raised about the sustainability of the world's seafood resources. In the U.S. and around the world, people are being advised to eat more seafood, but overfishing, climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and the use of fish for other purposes besides human consumption threaten the global seafood supply. 
 
 "If we're told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood," says study leader David Love, PhD, a researcher with the Public Health and Sustainable Aquaculture project at the CLF and an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 
 
 The new study analyzed the food waste issue by focusing on the amount of seafood lost annually at each stage of the food supply chain and at the consumer level. 
 
 After compiling data from many sources, the researchers estimated the U.S. edible seafood supply at approximately 4.7 billion pounds per year, which includes domestic and imported products minus any exported products. Some of the edible seafood supply is wasted as it moves through the supply chain from hook or net to plate. They found that the amount wasted each year is roughly 2.3 billion pounds. Of that waste, they say that 330 million pounds are lost in distribution and retail, 573 million pounds are lost when commercial fishers catch the wrong species of fish and then discard it (a concept called bycatch) and a staggering 1.3 billion pounds are lost at the consumer level. 
 
 The researchers found the greatest portion of seafood loss occurred at the level of consumers (51 to 63 percent of waste). Sixteen to 32 percent of waste is due to bycatch, while 13 to 16 percent is lost in distribution and retail operations. To illustrate the magnitude of the loss, the authors estimate this lost seafood could contain enough protein to fulfill the annual requirements for as many as 10 million men or 12 million women; and there is enough seafood lost to close 36 percent of the gap between current seafood consumption and the levels recommended by the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. 
 
 The 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommended increasing seafood consumption to eight ounces per person per week and consuming a variety of seafood in place of some meat and poultry. Yet achieving those levels would require doubling the U.S. seafood supply, the researchers say. 
 
 Waste reduction has the potential to support increased seafood consumption without further stressing aquatic resources, says Roni Neff, PhD, director of the Food System Sustainability & Public Health Program at CLF and an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She says that while a portion of the loss could be recovered for human consumption, "we do not intend to suggest that all of it could or should become food for humans." 
 
 "It would generally be preferable for the fish that becomes bycatch to be left alive in the water rather than eaten, and due to seafood's short shelf life, it may be particularly challenging compared to other food items to get the remaining seafood eaten or frozen before it decays," she says. Instead, focusing on prevention strategies involving governments, businesses and consumers can reduce seafood loss and create a more efficient and sustainable seafood system. 
 
 The researchers offer several approaches to reduce seafood waste along the food chain from catch to consumer. Suggestions range from limiting the percent of bycatch that can be caught at the production level to packaging seafood into smaller portion sizes at the processing level to encouraging consumer purchases of frozen seafood. Some loss is unavoidable, but the researchers hope these estimates and suggestions will help stimulate dialogue about the significance and magnitude of seafood loss. 
 
 Explore further: Rethinking fish farming to offset its public health and environmental risks 
 
 More information: "Wasted seafood in the United States: Quantifying loss from production to consumption and moving toward solutions" was written by Dave C. Love, Jillian P. Fry, Michael C. Milli and Roni A. Neff. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378015300340 ||||| Almost half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new research . 
 
 The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change , suggests that consumers discard 1.3 billion pounds annually, fishers throw away 570 million pounds when they catch the wrong species and 330 pounds are lost during distribution. The total edible seafood supply is about 4.7 billion pounds per year. 
 
 U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that most Americans increase their seafood intake. The wasted fish contains enough protein to meet the requirements of more than 10 million people each year, according to the study. 
 
 “If we’re told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood,” study leader David Love, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said in a statement. 
 
 The news follows recent attention by the public and policymakers to the scale of food waste in the U.S. Last week, the federal government announced plans to cut food waste in half by 2030. 
 
 “Let’s feed people, not landfills,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. 
 
 Read More: Should I Eat Salmon? ||||| Fish and seafood are precious resources for our planet and all who live on it. This is particularly so for people in some of the poorest countries, who rely on healthy fisheries for their source of protein. 
 
 Our fish and seafood come from a wide variety of sources, including wild fisheries in oceans around the world and from fish farms that breed their own fish. Like meat and poultry, the seafood we procure is used in ready-made and frozen meals, healthcare nutrition products such as sports drinks, and especially pet food. We purchased around 130 000 tonnes of fish and seafood in 2016, most of which is for Nestlé Purina. 
 
 How we source fish and seafood 
 
 We understand the importance of having sustainable fisheries and healthy fish farms, as well as the immense challenges we all must overcome to source fish and seafood responsibly. Therefore, we work closely with our suppliers to identify, as far as possible, the sources of our fish and seafood ingredients. Our ambition is to confirm that the fish and seafood we source come from healthy fisheries or farms engaged in improvement projects. By communicating our expectations to our suppliers and following up on their progress, we will increasingly be able to assess our supply chain against our category-specific requirements for fish and seafood – for example, that there is no known sourcing from illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries and vessels, and that there is no known sourcing from operations that are not legally licensed for production and sales. We will also be able to evaluate the sustainability of seafood sources (wild and farmed) and identify projects to enhance the environmental performance of our suppliers. 
 
 To best identify the origins of fish by-products, our fish and seafood buyers work closely with their vendors to collect data on the species, country of origin and fishery from where the fish originated. We provide all this seafood purchasing information to our independent, not-for-profit NGO partner – the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership ( SFP ) – to identify and assess the wild and farmed fisheries from which our seafood supply comes. 
 
 Sourcing fish and seafood for pet food Identifying the precise sources for fish and seafood is difficult. For pet foods, which primarily use fish by-products, traceability is even more challenging as the typical traceability mechanisms for human edible fish do not exist. So why do we use fish by-products in our pet food? All of Nestlé Purina’s pet food products follow complete and balanced recipes that meet the nutritional needs of dogs and cats at each life stage and for many health conditions. Over 500 Nestlé Purina pet experts are behind the creation of our recipes to provide perfectly balanced pet nutrition. Some of these recipes include the use of fish by-products, which are nutrient-dense. Fish by-products are parts of a fish that remain after the fish fillets are removed for the human food supply chain. In addition to being nutritionally beneficial, the utilisation of fish by-products represents an environmentally and socially responsible practice, by using all the protein sources of a fish while not competing with the human food supply. 
 
 We are able to track about 91.7%* of our purchases of whole fish to the vessels that caught them. From there, the SFP provides assessments on the source fisheries. A large percentage of the seafood purchased for nutritious pet food products is a by-product of the process of producing fish for human consumption. Currently, we have identified 223* source fisheries, up from 153* in the previous year. Of those fisheries, 54%* were considered responsibly sourced, meaning they were low or medium risk based on Fishsource.org scores, were certified by a recognised agency such as the Marine Stewardship Council ( MSC ). 
 
 Our Responsible Sourcing Guideline (pdf, 1.58Mb) ( RSG ) establishes a framework for continuous improvement in our wild caught and farmed seafood supply chain, building towards Responsible Sourcing. 
 
 We also recognise seafood certified by independent NGOs such as the MSC , the world’s leading certification and eco-labelling programme for sustainable seafood. 
 
 Fish and seafood supply chain challenges and solutions 
 
 Overfishing is a global issue within the supply chain. We are working with partners to address this and ensure sustainable practices are used. Labour conditions have also been acknowledged as an issue, in particular in the Thai seafood supply chain, and we are implementing a detailed action plan to tackle this. Fish feed has been identified by the SFP as a large challenge across the aquaculture industry, and feed manufacturers are taking steps to address this. 
 
 Labour conditions 
 
 Poor labour conditions has been identified as one of the issues within the fish and seafood supply chain, particular in Thailand’s fishing industry. We commissioned Verité, an independent NGO that works with companies to help understand and tackle labour issues, to investigate allegations of abuses in the Thai fishing industry. They collected information from fishing vessels, ports, mills and farms in Thailand on a range of issues, including trafficking, forced and underage labour, lack of grievance procedures, workplace conditions, and wages and benefits. Following this, we developed an action plan, based on their recommendations, to address these issues. The plan contains initiatives to protect workers from abuses. We continue to work with the Thai Government and other key stakeholders to improve labour conditions in the fish and seafood industry. 
 
 Overfishing 
 
 Overfishing is a key issue facing all of us. Nestlé Purina reviews all the species caught to ensure that no critically endangered, or endangered species of fish according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Red List are included in our seafood purchases. 
 
 Our annual objectives 
 
 Fish and seafood supply chain traceability results (for whole fish; by-product is traced only by the number of fisheries) 
 
 Data table Total volume in scope 130 000 tonnes Percentage of volume* of whole fish that is traceable to the boat 91.7% (2016 target: 99%) Percentage of volume* Responsibly Sourced from one of the 223 fisheries identified by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) 54% (2016 target: 40%) * The figure for total volume is Nestlé-wide and is the same as for 2015 as global volumes for 2016 have not been received. All other figures are for fish and seafood purchased by Nestlé Purina, which receives about 92% of the total volume. 
 
 Our progress to date 
 
 We continue to refine our data collection methods to include more data, such as the Latin names of species, to ensure consistency across global zones. We are working with SFP to better understand aquaculture risks in different world areas and the importance of zonal management systems for fish farms. 
 
 Tackling human rights abuses in the Thai seafood supply chain Following an investigation and report (pdf, 832Kb) by our independent NGO partner Verité, we launched an action plan (pdf, 656Kb) on seafood sourced from Thailand. Focused on 10 key activities, the plan contains a series of actions designed to protect workers from abuses, improve working conditions and tackle unacceptable practices, including juvenile and teenage working. Those actions involve establishing a migrant workforce emergency response team, setting up a grievance mechanism, providing training for captains and boat owners operating in the industry, raising awareness about minimum required labour standards, establishing better traceability of raw materials and enabling verification of labour standards in fishing vessels. The action plan was rolled out throughout 2016, with a dedicated manager based in Thailand to oversee its implementation. Alongside the Thai Government, local seafood suppliers and international buyers, we also continue to participate in the multi-stakeholder ILO Working Group, which is seeking collaborative solutions to improve labour conditions in Thailand’s complex seafood export industry. 
 
 Looking ahead 
 
 Human rights abuses have no place in our seafood supply chain. Nestlé was among the first companies to issue a comprehensive plan to work with NGO partners to address this complex issue. As part of this effort to fight human rights abuses in the seafood supply chain, Nestlé bans all fish and seafood caught from IUU (Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported) fishing. To demonstrate further our commitment to fighting human rights abuses, Nestlé Purina committed to a ban on all trans-shipments at sea (where items are transferred from one ship to another) at the end of 2016, and we are updating our RSG to include this prohibition. Trans-shipments at sea enable rogue fishing vessels to engage in IUU fishing and other illegal activities by not returning to port for extended periods of time, up to several years in some cases. We believe the worst forms of human rights abuses may occur aboard such vessels because of the lack of regulation, enforcement and transparency offshore. Due to the opaque nature of offshore fishing practices and worker treatment on vessels, Nestlé Purina supports banning all trans-shipments as a step towards eliminating IUU fishing and preventing human rights abuses at sea.
– US consumers throw out or otherwise waste 1.3 billion pounds of edible seafood every year—that's more than a quarter of the country's annual supply, according to a press release from John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Those numbers come from a new study published in Global Environmental Change that found up to 47% of the US' edible seafood supply goes uneaten every year. Some of that is the fault of fishermen catching the wrong species or product lost during distribution and retail. But the majority of the waste—51% to 63%—is squarely the fault of consumers. The 2.3 billion pounds of edible seafood that goes uneaten is enough protein to sustain more than 10 million people for a year. The findings are especially important now, with experts encouraging US residents to eat more seafood in lieu of chicken, beef, or other meats, according to the researchers. Unfortunately, a number of factors—including overfishing and climate change—are destroying the world's seafood supply. "If we're told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood," the study leader says in the press release. Researchers suggest packaging seafood in smaller portions or encouraging consumers to buy frozen seafood. Time reports the new study fits with the federal government's plan—announced last week—to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. “Let's feed people, not landfills,” the EPA said at the time.