“A fish will often go through five to 15 sets of hands in the supply chain, from the boat to the retailer or restaurant,” reports Ensia. Many customers are willing to pay a premium to know the origins of their fish, especially if they’ve heard how rampant fraud is in the seafood business. Up to a third of fish sold in the U.S. is labeled as the wrong species—often as a way to skirt conservation quotas.
While well-outfitted trawlers can afford specialized tracking equipment, many small fishermen can’t, making it impossible for them to apply for certain sustainability certifications (and the better price they offer). That is starting to change, though, as more tech companies target independent, artisanal fishermen.
In California, Pelagic Data Systems, offers an inexpensive solar-powered monitor perfect for small boats. The device records a boat’s location and sends the data into the cellular cloud, where seafood buyers and conservation groups can check to see whether the boat is in restricted waters. The company TRU-ID is tackling the problem of mislabeled fish through portable DNA kits that offer species verification on the spot, without having to send fish tissue samples to a pricey lab. Others, like the Gulf Wild initiative, are opting for a barcode system, where each fish is tagged with a traceable barcode that links to a website with information on where the fish was caught and who has handled it since.