Tuna Trip Verification

Organization: Metro Group

Challenge Owner Name: Oliver Teschl oliver.teschl@metronom.com

Video Pitch

Interview

Challenge Statement:

Seafood supply chain actors need the ability to verify the data given to them by suppliers to give credible assurance to external stakeholders about the provenance of the seafood they buy and sell. Most attention to foster better seafood traceability has prioritized accessing data ahead of ensuring data is accurate. The tuna supply chain is a prime example where a methodology for verifying seafood traceability could provide great value to a diverse group of stakeholders.

Background:

A large proportion of the global catch of tuna is caught by two types of fishing vessels. The first are large-scale purse seine vessels targeting skipjack, and smaller yellowfin and bigeye. The second are deep-set longline vessels targeting albacore and mature yellowfin and bigeye. Typically, these vessels are subject to multi-lateral organizations, called Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs), which manage the fishing of geographically-vast stocks of fish like tuna. These RFMOs mandate that the fishing vessels be listed on their public vessel registries before being able to target tuna in their areas of jurisdiction. The RFMOs also mandate that these fishing vessels have International Maritime Organization (IMO) numbers. These fishing vessels will often cross great distances across the waters of various nations and jurisdictions. For safety purposes and for monitoring where these vessels are operating, the vessels carry transponders which emit their location in regular radio transmissions. This transponder technology is called Automatic Identification System (AIS) and they can reveal the historical track of a fishing vessel as it fishes for tuna.

Possible Solution:

A successful solution to this challenge of verifying data about a tuna fishing trip will corroborate 4 key data elements: a fishing vessel’s registration number, IMO number, location(s) of fishing and dates of fishing. A possible solution could absorb catch data embedded in GDST-formatted EPCIS seafood traceability event files. It could then cross-reference the registration number against RFMO vessel registries and the IMO’s vessel registry to demonstrate the reported vessel conforms to the authoritative sources. Then the solution could demonstrate the fishing vessel operated in the reported locations during the dates reported by cross-referencing the seafood traceability event data with Global Fishing Watch’s repository of AIS data.

Resources:

• Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s Record of Fishing Vessel
• IMO’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GSIS) [requires registration]
• Global Fishing Watch’s repository of AIS data
• EPCIS Standard 1.2
• EPCIS Standard webpage
• [Sample seafood EPCIS event data – GDST team will supply]