Environmental charity ClientEarth has launched a new platform which tracks the adverse environmental and human impacts of seafood production. ClientEarth experts say much of this seafood product is frequently found on EU supermarket shelves, and its potential links to major human rights impacts and severe environmental degradation puts European companies and investors at legal risk. The global production of fish and seafood has quadrupled over the past 50 years. While seafood remains a valuable source of income for many, the increased demand and trade is driving overfishing and ecosystems’ destruction across the world. Commonly sold species like Ecuadorian shrimp, Honduran lobster or Moroccan octopus are linked to the destruction of mangroves that deprives local communities of a major source of food to the high incidence of disabilities among compressor divers forced to go deeper and deeper to catch lobsters. EU decision-makers are currently adopting a new law – the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – that would ramp-up the requirements for seafood companies, retailers and investors to take measures to clean up their value chains and portfolios by carrying out due diligence and addressing potential and actual adverse impacts on people and the environment.
The seafood industry is exposed to human rights and environmental issues which put companies at risk. We’re calling on companies to increase traceability in their seafood value chain. https://t.co/MnzYB9toDA
— ClientEarth (@ClientEarth) July 10, 2023
