On the evening of Wednesday, April 24th, watermen and women from around the world met with some of the seafood industry’s largest retailers and suppliers to collaborate on initiatives for an increasingly sustainable blue future.

In the historic harbor of Port Vell, the world-renowned L’Aqàrium de Barcelona served as the backdrop for the night’s four-course fully-traceable seafood dinner. Together, Wholechain and co-hosts BioMar, Food Tank, Tilghman Island Seafood, the State of Virginia Seafood Products Board and Envisible, presented a night to remember.

The event began with a scenic cocktail hour that took place on the aquarium’s wrap-around terrace, boasting panoramic views of the city’s historic Barri Gòtic district. Guests were served curated starters of Atlantic King Crab, South African Hake, and Scottish Salmon, each of which could be traced through their respective supply chains and back to the source by scanning an available QR code. Each seafood ingredient from the evening was provided by fully-traceable suppliers — LAMAR Seafoods, Cape Fish, Tilghman Island Seafood, Loch Duart, Scanfisk Seafood, and Arctic Crab.

As attendees moved into the aquarium’s main room for dinner, they found their tables surrounded by floor-to-ceiling tanks of fish, rays, crustaceans, and marine flora. Wholechain’s CEO and Co-founder, Jayson Berryhill, took the stage and formally kicked off the highly anticipated and meticulously curated event.

Jayson introduced the event as part of a collaborative series called Better Food Future, spearheaded by Wholechain, a blockchain-based traceability company. The dinner was crafted to convene buyers, suppliers, producers, policy makers, and supply chain improvement partners in a call to collaborative action. With traceability as the focal point, the initiative is able to accelerate impact towards common sustainability targets.

Tackling food system challenges starting with the UN Global Compact Tipping Points for Healthy and Productive Oceans

Better Food Future is designed to support the UN Global Compact (UNGC) Ocean Stewardship Coalition and the UNGC Solutions Network that is led by Wholechain. Scalable solutions have been outlined and characterized by five crucial ‘Tipping Points’ which cover sustainable seafood, decarbonized shipping, ocean energy, ocean mapping and data, and waste management. Wholechain has developed a strategic plan for these global goals in defining priority programs based on inputs from public and private sector signatories, government and multilateral agency leaders.

Five major programs have been created in collaboration with the UNGC Solutions Network and deployed through Wholechain’s Better Food Future and adjacent traceability-centered projects. The existing programs include: increasing market access for small scale producers, deforestation and conversion free supply chains, conservation and restoration of biodiversity in our oceans and food systems, improvement of food security, and the reduction of pollution in our oceans and food systems.

Amidst today’s consumer-driven society, our food systems have grown to measure themselves on a scale of efficiency and yield. Market pressure has transmuted into ecosystem pressure and destructive silos have formed between oceans and food systems.

The zeitgeist of today’s seafood industry is hazy with complexities, most of which are born from dispersed supply chains. Networks of international players are responsible for a singular aspect of the far-from-linear track to move a raw-harvested seafood product to its end consumer. By nature, this structure is prone to convolution and incongruence.

Catalyzed by a growing and homogeneous consumer demand for seafood, fishermen and women have been pigeonholed into overfishing a select few species to maintain their livelihoods. Suppliers have also outsourced buying to distant markets, increasing the gap between our food system and the environment itself. In removing decision-making entities almost entirely from the ecosystems of which they are buying, a pronounced stratification has cultivated within the industry.

Although the seafood industry is not unique in having nuanced and complex supply chains, industries that are confronted with similar dynamics have adopted lot-based traceability models. In the pharmaceutical industry, lot-numbers become permanently attached to raw materials; they are traceable and consistent throughout all steps of manufacturing and distribution.

In the business for people and the planet, Wholechain’s Better Food Future events strive to realign the word “productivity” with “healthy” until the two are synonymous in regards to our food systems and our oceans.

Verifiable data from source to plate for seafood and aquaculture supply chains

Wholechain co-founders Jayson Berryhill and Mark Kaplan have recognized this and have paved the way for a frontier in supply chain traceability using universally-recognized standards. In the application of seafood, Wholechain is able to integrate traceability into the most complex supply chains. In doing so, a distributor, supplier, or consumer alike is able to track the journey of each catch from the point it is removed from the ocean or farm.

Traceability is a prerequisite to transparency, and with more consumers wanting to see below the surface than ever before, Wholechain is in the business of giving people goggles. Wholechain is the tool that companies are able to employ to understand and present their supply chain, end to end, to their customers. Internally, Wholechain generates insight and verifiable data, helping companies to understand what changes could be made to increase health and productivity for the company and environment.

The recent Barcelona Better Food Future event highlighted these applications. Wholechain collaborated with three main seafood companies as co-hosts, each respective pioneers within the industry, to showcase the value of fully-traceable, transparent seafood. Wholechain demonstrated how the implementation of traceability is able to activate several of the shared UNGC Ocean Stewardship Network’s goals through increasing market access for small scale producers and restoring biodiversity in our oceans and food systems.

Blutopia’s Meagre hailing from Rhodes Greece wows an international audience

The first entree that was served, a Meagre accompanied by Catalan coca, basil, and sweet tomato, was presented by Blutopia and LAMAR S.A. from Rhodes Island, Greece. LAMAR is a small-scale and highly responsible fin-fish aquafarm, loyal to its allegiance with sustainability. Preserving the integrity of native fish species and the natural ecosystem of the Strongyli Islands is quintessential to LAMAR’s ethos. The region’s natural environment is characterized as a biodiversity hotspot and the Meagre, a local bonne bouche, was an indisputable showcase.

LAMAR’s founder, Lazaros Chatzinikolaou, explained the value of sharing the species: “Many people experienced Meagre for the first time today. Now, when they see it on a restaurant menu, they’ll recognize this delicious Mediterranean dish and appreciate its origins.”

LAMAR’s Melanie Chatzinikolaou expressed that “by showcasing our collective value to the industry, we’re all motivated knowing we’re taking steps towards a shared, sustainable future.”

Enabling routes to market for small-scale producers

“This is a fantastic platform for small, local farmers and producers to showcase their incredible work and products. It especially highlights those dedicated farmers on a sustainable journey, which benefits us all.” — Caitlin Gilmour, Global Fishing Watch

The second dish, an artisan, wild-caught South African Yellowfin Tuna bathed in a chilled tomato and watermelon cream, was presented by Cape Fish. Cape Fish is the first South African tuna and swordfish producer to earn the Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification, a program exclusively linking certified fisheries to certified vessels and processing plants, ensuring the highest standard of seafood. Cape Fish obtained this standard through the Global Seafood Alliance, sponsored by Wholechain and Envisible, a close partner of Wholechain. This case study, as well as a pilot program for sustainable Mahi from Oman, exemplify forward momentum towards the global goal for sustainable development by increasing market access for small-scale producers.

An exemplary showcase of small scale producers achieving market access, Cape Fish also is one of the first participants in the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Fisher IDs pilot program. Fishery IDs aim to achieve more detailed harvest area data to integrate into traceability and other reporting, with the goal of tackling challenges like overfishing and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Chesapeake Bay’s invasive blue catfish: Can’t beat ‘em? Eat ‘em.

The final entree of the night was a wild-caught Blue Catfish from the Chesapeake Bay. The dish was prepared in a green walnut and herb ratafia sauce. Both Pat Hudson and Mike Hutt, representing Tilghman Island Seafood and the State of Virginia Marine Products Board respectively, presented the dish and educated the audience on a stigma-defying delicacy.

Blue Catfish is an invasive fish species in the Chesapeake Bay, but increasing commercial harvest and consumption has helped to reduce their numbers. The non-native Blue Catfish is a foreign predator in the ecosystem and has been flourishing by invading the spawning waters of American Shad and other fish and shellfish native to the Bay’s tributaries. Unfortunately, consumers often hear “Catfish” and associate it with being a low-grade bottom-feeding species; this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Blue Catfish eat crab, fish, crayfish, clams, and mussels — all high-valued species in and of themselves. Tilghman Island Seafood sees the multifaceted value of educating people on the environmental threats of the Blue Catfish, introducing the species to peoples’ pallets, encouraging more biodiverse consumption practices, and creating opportunity for Chesapeake Bay fishermen to profit from managing an invasive species.

Another dinner attendee spoke to the impact of this program and other unique efforts. Soledad Jiron, representing Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank and supporting Latin America projects, summarized these missions eloquently: “It’s about recognizing and celebrating farmers with great initiatives. Returning to their farms, they’ll be even more motivated knowing we value their hard work, which is essential for all of us.”

The tides are shifting, and the seafood industry is reacting to internal and external changes in tandem. Amidst a veiled gap between fishermen and consumers, there are key actors pursuing clarity and impactful business practices. Wholechain recognizes these instrumental people are oftentimes swimming upstream against the flow of a murky industry.

As a technical officer for a range of international fisheries and aquaculture projects with the Global Fishing Watch, dinner guest Caitlin Gilmour has a first-hand understanding of the mission that lies ahead within the seafood industry. According to Caitlin, “This is a fantastic platform for small, local farmers and producers to showcase their incredible work and products. It especially highlights those dedicated farmers on a sustainable journey, which benefits us all.”

In the business for people and the planet, Wholechain’s Better Food Future events strive to realign the word “productivity” with “healthy” until the two are synonymous in regards to our food systems and our oceans.