Seafood sustainability is complex, but solutions exist. Fish have no borders. Cross-country cooperation is needed.（Part 1)

Teresa Ish leads the Walton Family Foundation’s Oceans initiative, which supports organizations and groups involved in seafood sustainability. In Japan, she has built partnerships with several organizations, including Seafood Legacy, and has appeared on stage at the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit (TSSS) from its inception onward. We asked Teresa about the aims of her efforts on behalf of sustainability and her thoughts on Japan’s fisheries industry, as seen from her standpoint supporting numerous organizations around the world and forming collaborative partnerships that go beyond financial support to embrace shared purposes.

Teresa Ish
Teresa Ish serves as the leader of the Walton Family Foundation’s Oceans initiative, which seeks to protect ocean ecosystems through sustainable fisheries. Before joining the foundation, she worked on the formulation of procurement policies as the seafood project manager for the Corporate Partnerships Program at Environmental Defense Fund. She is also a co-founder of FishWise, an early leader in the sustainable seafood movement. She has a master’s degree in marine science and joint bachelors in environmental studies and marine biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and recently completed a certificate in Corporate Finance at the Harvard Extension School.

As Fish Disappear from Daily Diet, the Pressing Need for Fisheries Management

―― You’ve been involved in ocean sustainability-related work for a long time. How did you become interested in this field?

I studied marine biology and marine science at university. After working for a number of NGOs, I came to my current position with the Foundation. I’d long wanted to be involved in environmental conservation, but it was when I began surfing during my university days that I took a particular interest in ocean issues.

I grew up in California and had grandparents living in Santa Cruz. My grandfather was a skilled fisherman who worked a fishing boat, so the ocean had long been something familiar to me. I began spending a lot of time by the sea and ended up wanting to somehow protect the ocean that gives me such a feeling of security and comfort.

I became interested specifically in fisheries management when I saw the collapse of Pacific rockfish (a fish in the Sebastes genus) fisheries*. This very beautiful fish is an indispensable item on everyday dinner tables in California. Catches collapsed, however, and the fish headed toward disappearing from tables.

This was what triggered my realization that action is needed to protect fish and fisheries. As I had a close-up view of people who make a living through fishing, I also realized that a simple “stop fishing” would not be enough. While allowing populations to recover, we also have to protect the people whose livelihoods depend on fisheries.

*A fishery collapse means that a fish species or other marine resource is drastically reduced and that fisheries targeting that resource become unviable. In addition to overfishing, major causes include combinations of ecosystem changes, climate change, and other environmental changes that lead to depletion of resources, a decline in the number of fishing boats, and the inability to generate sufficient profit, placing the industry in a critical condition.

Heading out to sea in person to interact with fish. A big halibut caught in Alaska (2022).

A rewarding issue that is complicated but that has solutions

―― So, you wanted to take concrete action on behalf of the sea that had always been close to you.

Part of why work involving fish is so deeply interesting is that it’s closely related to human activities. To talk about fish is to talk about food, and food is a part of culture. Also, fishery issues are very complex. Overfishing, illegal fishing, supply chain labor issues, maintenance of fishing communities… These things are all deeply intertwined.

But these are not issues that we don’t know how to solve. To be sure, there’s a lot to be done if we’re to effect change. Getting people to understand the importance of protecting marine resources and fisheries isn’t easy. But there are solutions. That’s why I find this area rewarding.

―― Could you tell us about your current work at the Walton Family Foundation?

Maintaining healthy populations of fish means preserving ecosystems as well as protecting the ocean from climate change and environmental pollution. It also means protecting the livelihoods of people who make their living through fishing. That’s why we try to address three things at the same time: communities, business, and environmental conservation.

Toward that end, the Walton Family Foundation supports NGOs and other organizations, and seeks to help all stakeholders move forward together by addressing the issues that these organizations are tackling together with fishing communities, marine product companies, and government bodies responsible for fisheries management. My work involves selecting the organizations that we partner with and supporting their work.

Japan as one of the world’s three largest markets and a crucial player

―― Many of your partners are in Japan. What led to your being active in Japan?

Two-thirds of the seafood distributed worldwide, including all legal and illegal trade, flows to the three largest markets of the United States, the EU, and Japan. That’s why Japan is indispensable as a key player. In protecting the world’s oceans and preserving precious food resources, we can’t achieve our goals without the participation of Japan.

―― It’s because seafood is a global commodity that cooperation among countries is vital.

That’s right. As an example, back when the EU countries had different regulations for each, imports from some regions would plummet in countries that introduced strict import restrictions, but at the same time would jump upward in other countries. In other words, commodities that were refused would flow to another country, a simple change of destination.

The same thing happens on a global scale. However, if the US, Japan, and the EU come together to shut illegal seafood out of their markets, it’s a different story. Scale and transaction prices fall sharply in markets outside of the three large ones. As such, making the effort to sell non-sustainable seafood loses meaning.

That’s why more cooperation is needed, including from Japan. The only path to solving issues is for all countries and regions that make up the market, including member countries of the IUU Fishing Action Alliance (IUU-AA)* that addresses illegal fishing issues, to jointly reject illegal fishing.

*IUU Fishing Action Alliance (IUU-AA) is an intergovernmental collaboration platform aimed at the eradication of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a key cause of the depletion of seafood resources and the destruction of marine ecosystems. As of February 2024, 11 countries and regions, including the US and EU, have joined the alliance. See details here(Japanese).

Focusing its activities on the three largest markets of the US, EU, and Japan, the Foundation works to improve fisheries, with nine seafood species and 14 focus fisheries worldwide as priority targets. (Graphic: Walton Family Foundation website. See full image here.)

Carefully searching for partners and building relationships

―― You call the organizations that receive your financial support “partners.” How do you meet with and select these?

Through participation in events and information transmitted through personal networks, we investigate the activities, influence, scale, potential, and needs of candidate organizations, and explore whether we could be of aid to them. In new regions in particular, we take our time and exercise care in searching for partners.

I think other foundations have their own philosophies and approaches, but we seek partners who have points in common with us in their worldviews and their approaches to action. We don’t require perfect agreement, but we do set the condition that an organization’s tools and approaches seem effective from our point of view. We also want partners to share their knowledge and worldview with us, while also asking that they unreservedly let us know of any doubts or objections they may have about our ways of doing things.

Building good relationships is important. As a foundation for relationships of trust, both sides share with each other what it is that they value, and we work to gain the understanding that we want to share our visions and work together, not dominate or direct the partner through financial support.

We believe that the people who are close to the front lines where issues exist are also the people who are close to solutions. We want to take in the thoughts, approaches, and solutions of these people who are active in the field.

Our role is to help by providing resources. By resources, I mean not only funds but also connections and relationships. At times, a partner will ask us to tell them what we’d like them to do. We patiently explain that our role isn’t one of instructing them in what they should do. Sometimes this isn’t easy, though.

Teresa Ish (right) of the Walton Family Foundation and Moira Mcdonald (center), Environmental Program Director for the Foundation, visiting fishers in Alaska. At left is fishing boat captain Mr. Milne.

Supporting the creation of the collaborative frameworks that are crucial to solving complex, vast issues

── The relationships are about more than funding, aren’t they.

That’s right. In every region, we provide support for solidarity and collaboration among partners and seek to build networks. We do this because when facing a common issue, people whose tools and expertise differ a bit from one another can move forward more effectively by pooling their strength.

No matter how powerful and talented an organization is, it faces limits on what it can do alone. The issues we’re tackling are vast and huge in scope, which makes collaboration crucial. So, we introduce other groups to our partners, make connections, and provide backup for cooperation and collaboration.

Perhaps this is a viewpoint unique to the Foundation, but as we work collaboratively with many organizations, we see a lot of things, a bit at a time, that are being done in various places. Multiple activities overlapping, people tackling the same things from slightly different angles, across different regions and fields… By connecting these groups with each other, we help make it possible to move forward more efficiently and effectively.

Turning connections among partners into connections with markets and fisheries

There’s a connection-building approach that we’re considering now. As an example, Seafood Legacy focuses on imported tuna as a priority topic. This is an area that carries a high risk of IUU and forced labor. At the same time, the Tuna Consortium that a colleague of mine is in charge of brings together a globe-spanning range of tuna fishing representatives, from small-scale rod-and-reed fishers to large fishing fleets. Much of their catch of sashimi-quality tuna, their highest-grade product, comes into Japan. But up to now, Japan’s supply chain has had nearly no involvement in the sustainability of tuna.

So, we want to connect Seafood Legacy, which is able to act on Japanese seafood companies, with the Tuna Consortium, which brings together local fishers.

Buyers telling tuna fishers that Japanese companies demand sustainability creates a big incentive. Japanese companies, too, seek information on where tuna is being fished sustainably, so there are advantages in collaborating. It’s truly important to us that we create such connections among partners.

Approaches must take into consideration all parties, from those engaged in fishing to seafood companies, NGOs, researchers, and government bodies. The photo shows small fishing boats in Bali. (Photo: Leo Pradela)

In Part II, we ask about cross-sectional perspectives, actions, and strategies pertinent to the Foundation as it engages in support for NGOs and other organizations. We further ask about signs of major change, expectations for the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit 2024 in October, the message the Foundation hopes to communicate there, and more.

Original Japanese text: Keiko Ihara