A recent investigation by DeSmog reveals that sea bass sold in major United Kingdom supermarkets is linked to overfishing in Senegal, where local communities are being deprived of a critical food source.
The report traces fishmeal made from small, nutrient-rich fish in Senegal to Turkish sea bass farms, and ultimately to the plates of British consumers. Labels claim the fish is “responsibly sourced,” but research suggests otherwise.
The story begins on the beaches of Senegal, where investigative journalist Hazel Healy met women fish workers whose livelihoods were impacted by fishmeal factories. “These women had been making a good living—their kids migrated by plane to the United States—but now they were reduced to waiting in the shadows, as they put it, and their sons were making dangerous journeys on boats in search of opportunity,” Healy tells Food Tank.
The small fish can be ground into meal that is dried, processed, and sold by women fish workers. The product offers essential micronutrients to local communities.
But Healy began meeting families with malnourished children who could no longer afford the dried fish that used to be sprinkled on porridge. “The scarcity and high price of these fish is being driven, in part, by competition from Senegal’s six fishmeal factories,” she says.
After years of denial from feed and farming companies, Healy and her team spent two years piecing together opaque trade flows, using customs data, satellite tracking, and food safety labels. Their findings linked Senegalese fishmeal to Kilic, a leading Turkish sea bass farmer whose exports feed the UK market.
One of the investigation’s most troubling discoveries was that these practices did not violate the rules of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), the certification label attached to the fish, Healy says. “A Turkish sea bass farmer which sourced fishmeal from chronically overfished Senegal did not break the rules of the ASC’s feed standard.”
Healy explains that ASC rules state that feed fish must come only from fisheries that are, at minimum, “reasonably well managed” with healthy stocks. But “all the data available in Senegal shows that target stocks are crashing.”
It’s even more concerning to the investigative team that ASC’s upcoming standards will only require stricter due diligence for fishmeal that makes up more than 1 percent of a company’s feed.
According to Kilic, just 1 percent of its fishmeal comes from Senegal. This might seem minimal, but Healy says that this small amount “has a devastating impact” in Senegal. “We calculated that the amount of fishmeal that disappeared into Kilic’s feed over a four-year period could have met the dietary needs of nearly 2 million people.”
The case highlights the deep flaws in certification and traceability systems, says Mark Kaplan, Co-founder of the traceability platform Wholechain. He believes part of the problem lies in how certification standards are applied without robust, transparent data.
“There’s not an easy answer. You have to do the hard work, collect data, and realize that there might be things in your supply chain that you don’t want to hear,” Kaplan tells Food Tank.
Wholechain and similar technologies are beginning to pilot solutions that directly log the catches of small-scale fishers using ID cards and mobile tools. This ensures that individual fishers can be identified, fairly compensated, and recognized as part of the value chain. “Because of that, they have more visibility and the end buyers have more visibility to the practices at the first mile of the supply chain, which includes equitable compensation,” Kaplan notes.
But while technological tools can improve traceability, retailers remain the final gatekeepers. “The ultimate responsibility lies with retailers, which have huge buying power and the ability to influence the market,” Healy argues. “The label tells UK consumers that they are buying ‘responsibly sourced’ fish. If they advertise these things, they have to be able to deliver them.”
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Dale Gillard, Unsplash
