Fishing in supply chain methods and operations: The latest technologies informations

Abstract: Every wild seafood supply chain begins with a producer (the fisher) and terminates with an end buyer, who sells to a consumer. End buyers include retail outlets (from locally owned fish markets to national supermarket chains), restaurants, and foodservice establishments, such as hotels, hospitals, and schools. In artisanal fisheries, it is not uncommon for fishers to bypass the supply chain completely and sell their catch directly to consumers on the beach or door-to-door within the community. However, for seafood sold into more formal markets, supply chains can consist of any number or combination of mid-chain players (e.g., aggregators, primary processors, traders, wholesalers, dealers, secondary processors, distributors, transporters), who transform, package, and move product from the point of production to the final sale. Generally speaking, the more mid-chain players present, the greater the complexity of the supply chain, the greater the risk of losing data and story, and the greater the possibility of fraud. However, shorter supply chains don’t necessarily equate with more trustworthy data. For instance, in a very short supply chain where one processor aggregates catch from dozens of fishers and then sells to two retailers, the process of tracing each product back to the source is impossible without a system for segregating and labeling product from every producer. The following section identifies common supply chain attributes that are typically present within artisanal fisheries, and which relate to the ways product and product-level information flow, how mid-chain players function within certain seafood supply chains, and the motivations that drive certain practices. Identifying which attributes may be present in a supply chain can help hone strategies for how to effectively promote and incentivize more responsible fishing practices, better data capture and tracking, and better storytelling around product origin.

Introduction

The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, and the related harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors. The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. Directly or indirectly, the livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends on fisheries and aquaculture.

The fishing industry is notably connected to a number of major environmental and welfare issues, including overfishing and occupational safety. Additionally the combined pressures of forces like climate change, biodiversity loss, and overfishing endanger the livelihoods and food security of substantial portion of the global population. International policy to attempt to address these issues is captured in Sustainable Development Goal 14 “life below water” and sub-goal 14.4. “Sustainable fishing”.

Fishing and IoT Integration

Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the earth, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Large-scale commercial fishing is also known as industrial fishing.

The major fishing industries are not only owned by major corporations but by small families as well. In order to adapt to declining fish populations and increased demand, many commercial fishing operations have reduced the sustainability of their harvest by fishing further down the food chain. This raises concern for fishery managers and researchers, who highlight how further they say that for those reasons, the sustainability of the marine ecosystems could be in danger of collapsing.

Commercial fishermen harvest a wide variety of animals. However, a very small number of species support the majority of the world’s fisheries of these species are herring, cod, anchovy, tuna, flounder, mullet, squid, shrimp, salmon, crab, lobster, oyster and scallops. All except these last four provided a worldwide catch of well over a million tonnes in 1999, with herring and sardines together providing a catch of over 22 million metric tons in 1999. Many other species are fished in smaller numbers.

In 2016, of the 171 million tonnes of fish caught, about 88 percent or over 151 million tonnes were utilized for direct human consumption. This share has increased significantly in recent decades, as it was 67 percent in the 1960s. In 2016, the greatest part of the 12 percent used for non-food purposes (about 20 million tonnes) was reduced to fishmeal and fish oil (74 percent or 15 million tonnes), while the rest (5 million tonnes) was largely utilized as material for direct feeding in aquaculture and raising of livestock and fur animals, in culture (e.g. fry, fingerlings or small adults for ongrowing), as bait, in pharmaceutical uses and for ornamental purposes.

1. Bay-based Fishing Infrastructure Supply Chain Operation
2. Ocean-Based Fishing Offshore Artificial Island in Supply Chain Operation
3. Scaled-Channel Sea Flora Agriculture in Supply Chain Operation

Fish are harvested by commercial fishing and aquaculture.

The world harvest increased over the 20th century and, by 1986, had stabilized around 85–95 million metric tons (94×106–105×106 short tons) per year.[11] According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world harvest in 2005 consisted of 93.3 million metric tons (102.8×106 short tons) captured by commercial fishing in wild fisheries, plus 48.1 million metric tons (53.0×106 short tons) produced by fish farms. In addition, 1.3 million metric tons (1.4×106 short tons) of aquatic plants (seaweed etc.) were captured in wild fisheries and 14.8 million metric tons (16.3×106 short tons) were produced by aquaculture. The number of individual fish caught in the wild has been estimated at 0.97–2.7 trillion per year (not counting fish farms or marine invertebrates). Following is a table of the 2011 world fishing industry harvest in tonnes (metric tons) by capture and by aquaculture.

Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic organisms. Unlike fishing, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions. Mariculture refers to aquaculture practiced in marine environments. Particular kinds of aquaculture include algaculture (the production of kelp/seaweed and other algae); fish farming; shrimp farming, shellfish farming, and the growing of cultured pearls.

Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosed pools, usually for food. Fish species raised by fish farms include carp, salmon, tilapia, catfish and cod. Increasing demands on wild fisheries by commercial fishing operations have caused widespread overfishing. Fish farming offers an alternative solution to the increasing market demand for fish and fish protein.

Fish processing is the processing of fish delivered by commercial fisheries and fish farms. The larger fish processing companies have their own fishing fleets and independent fisheries. The products of the industry are usually sold wholesale to grocery chains or to intermediaries. Fish processing can be subdivided into two categories: fish handling (the initial processing of raw fish) and fish products manufacturing. Aspects of fish processing occur on fishing vessels, fish processing vessels, and at fish processing plants.

Another natural subdivision is into primary processing involved in the filleting and freezing of fresh fish for onward distribution to fresh fish retail and catering outlets, and the secondary processing that produces chilled, frozen and canned products for the retail and catering trades. Fisheries are estimated to currently provide 16% of the world population’s protein. The flesh of many fish are primarily valued as a source of food; there are many edible species of fish. Other marine life taken as food includes shellfish, crustaceans, sea cucumber, jellyfish and roe.

Fish and other marine life can also be used for many other uses: pearls and mother-of-pearl, sharkskin and rayskin. Sea horses, star fish, sea urchins and sea cucumber are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Tyrian purple is a pigment made from marine snails, and sepia is a pigment made from the inky secretions of cuttlefish. Fish glue has long been valued for its use in all manner of products. Isinglass is used for the clarification of wine and beer. Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish meal.

Fish derived protein hydrolysates have been identified to exhibit a wide range of bioactivities making them important to food and health care industries. Hydrolysates derived from fish processing by-products like swim bladder, skin, scale, bones and fins display blood pressure regulatory, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, immunomodulatory and anti-cancer activity. Fish hydrolysates are also on the rise for commercial purposes in food industries due to their lipid peroxidation inhibition, high emulsification activity and large water retention capacity making them effective food matrix stabilization and shelf life enhancement agents. In the industry, the term seafood products is often used instead of fish products. Fish markets are marketplace used for the trade in and sale of fish and other seafood. They can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of wet market, often sell street food as well. Most shrimp are sold frozen and are marketed in different categories. The live food fish trade is a global system that links fishing communities with markets.

In Conclusion

The environmental impact of fishing includes issues such as the availability of fish, overfishing, fisheries, and fisheries management; as well as the impact of industrial fishing on other elements of the environment, such as bycatch. These issues are part of marine conservation, and are addressed in fisheries science programs. According to a 2019 FAO report, global production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic animals has continued to grow and reached 172.6 million tonnes in 2017, with an increase of 4.1 percent compared with 2016. There is a growing gap between the supply of fish and demand, due in part to world population growth.

Fishing and pollution from fishing are the largest contributors to the decline in ocean health and water quality. Ghost nets, or nets abandoned in the ocean, are made of plastic and nylon and do not decompose, wreaking extreme havoc on the wildlife and ecosystems they interrupt. The ocean takes up 70% of the earth, so overfishing and hurting the marine environment affects everyone and everything on this planet. On top of the overfishing, there is a seafood shortage resulting from the mass amounts of seafood waste, as well as the microplastics that are polluting the seafood consumed by the public.[citation needed]

The journal Science published a four-year study in November 2006, which predicted that, at prevailing trends, the world would run out of wild-caught seafood in 2048. The scientists stated that the decline was a result of overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors that were reducing the population of fisheries at the same time as their ecosystems were being annihilated. Many countries, such as Tonga, the United States, Australia and Bahamas, and international management bodies have taken steps to appropriately manage marine resources.

Reefs are also being destroyed by overfishing because of the huge nets that are dragged along the ocean floor while trawling. Many corals are being destroyed and, as a consequence, the ecological niche of many species is at stake.

The ocean covers 71% of the earth’s surface and 80% of the value of exploited marine resources are attributed to the fishing industry. The fishing industry has provoked various international disputes as wild fish capture rose to a peak about the end of the 20th century, and has since started a gradual decline. Iceland, Japan, and Portugal are the greatest consumers of seafood per capita in the world.

Chile and Peru are countries with high fish consumption, and therefore had troubles regarding their fish industries. In 1947, Chile and Peru first adopted the 200 nautical mile standard as their exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and in 1982, the UN formally adopted this term. In the 2000s, Chile and Peru suffered a serious fish crisis because of excessive fishing and lack of proper regulations, and now political power play in the area is rekindled. From the late 1950s, offshore bottom trawlers began exploiting the deeper part, leading to a large catch increase and a strong decline in the underlying biomass. The stock collapsed to extremely low levels in the early 1990s and this is a well-known example of non-excludable, non-rivalrous public good in economics, causing free-rider problems.

Following the collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery in 1992, a dispute arose between Canada and the European Union over the right to fish Greenland halibut (also known as turbot) just outside of Canada’s exclusive economic zone in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The dispute became known as the Turbot War. On 9 March 1995, in response to observations of foreign vessels fishing illegally in Canadian waters and using illegal equipment outside of Canada’s EEZ, Canadian officials boarded and seized the Spanish trawler Estai in international waters on the Grand Banks.Throughout March, the Spanish Navy deployed patrol ships to protect fishing boats in the area, and Canadian forces were authorized to open fire on any Spanish vessel showing its guns. Canada and the European Union reached a settlement on 15 April which led to significant reforms in international fishing agreements.

Iceland is one of the largest consumers in the world and in 1972, a dispute occurred between UK and Iceland because of Iceland’s announcement of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to reduce overfishing. This dispute is called the Cod Wars, direct confrontations between Icelandic patrol vessels and British warships.

Nowadays in Europe in general, countries are searching for a way to recover their fishing industries. Overfishing of EU fisheries is costing 3.2 billion euros a year and 100,000 jobs according to a report. So Europe is constantly looking for some collective actions that could be taken to prevent overfishing.

Japan, China and Korea are some of the greatest consumers of fish, and have some disputes over Exclusive Economic Zone. In 2011, due to a serious earthquake, the nuclear power facility in Fukushima was damaged. Ever since, huge amount of contaminated water leaked and is entering the oceans. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site. In the Kuroshio Current, the sea near Fukushima, about 11 countries catch fish. Not only the surrounding countries such as Japan, Korea and China, but also the countries like Ukraine, Spain and Russia have boats in the Kuroshio Current. In September 2013, South Korea banned all fish imports from eight Japanese prefectures, due to the radioactive water leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The North_Pacific_Anadromous_Fish_Commission: NPFC was established in 2015 to manage fish stocks against increasing demand. Members are Canada, Japan, Russia, the United States, and South Korea. China, Taiwan, and Vanuatu also participated in the meeting. The NPFC imposes catch limits on member countries and countries participating in the conference. A crackdown on Illegal,_unreported_and_unregulated_fishing(IUU) vendors was also requested.