AN E- FISH- ENT SOLUTION TO

BY ERIC HALHJEM

To curb the destruction of marine ecosystems, the author proposes that Trident Seafoods, the largest seafood company in the US, transitions from bottom trawling to the purse seine method of fishing.

Off the coast of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, bottom trawling fishermen hoist their net up to find three lifeless harbor seals. Along the northern Gulf of Alaska, miles of coral beds perish as 450-footlong bottom trawlers scrape the seafloor. In Southeast Alaska, fishermen emit thousands of tons of aqueous carbon dioxide into the region’s pristine waters as they travel further to fish. These effects are common throughout all regions where commercial trawling occurs.

The United Nations’ 14th Sustainable Development Goal calls for society to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” 1 In Alaska, where bottom trawlers destroy thousands of square miles of seabed every day and account for approximately 60 percent of the region’s fishery discards, conservation and sustainable use of the oceans are virtually nonexistent.2 To reduce these impacts and create a sustainable system, companies such as Trident Seafoods must limit their bottom trawling and transition to more sustainable fishing methods. Through such an approach, companies will produce shared value for all stakeholders and shift toward a circular business model that furthers the sustainability of fish stocks and benefits the world’s oceans.

TRIDENT SEAFOODS’ ROLE AND TRAWLING’S CIRCULAR SYSTEM

Trident Seafoods is one of the largest seafood companies in the United States, and it currently operates one of the largest trawling fleets in the Western Hemisphere, with four trawl catcher-processors and fifteen trawl catcher vessels.3 As the largest seafood company in the nation, Trident Seafoods is one of the most prominent supporters of commercial trawling globally. Further, based on its current success, the company continues to increase its support of the destructive practice. In 2021, it acquired the 300-foot catcher-processor Starbound and two smaller trawl boats from Aleutian Spray Fisheries.4

However, this practice cannot continue as bottom trawling is inherently unsustainable. When a boat trawls, its net “stirs up the sediment lying on the seabed, displaces or harms some marine species, causes pollutants to mix into plankton and move into the food chain, and creates harmful algae blooms or oxygen-deficient dead zones.”5 As fishermen ruin seafloor habitats through this process, they require additional funding to travel farther and fish.

Fishing companies also lobby their governments for subsidies and governments then provide the funding to ensure thousands of jobs are not lost. After receiving these subsidies, bottom trawlers proceed to destroy seafloor habitats, and the process repeats itself. As can be seen, when fishermen trawl, they destroy ecosystems while acquiring more capital to travel further, leading to this cyclical process. However, this system will not last in the long term.

A 2018 report from Science Advances cites that “deep-sea bottom trawling would not be globally profitable at current rates without government subsidies, with maximum annual losses of $230 million before subsidies.”6 As boats create more “dead zones” and travel further to fish, their operating expenses will only increase. It will eventually not be rational for governments to provide subsidies, leading them to finance more profitable activities in other industries. If bottom trawling continues, this industry will receive less funding, fishermen will lose jobs, and annual losses will only grow.

The ramifications of this downward spiral have become increasingly apparent in recent years. In the 1980s, bottom trawling yielded predicted catches of 30 million tons annually. This estimate has declined yearly since 1989 as more “dead zones” emerged and fish stocks continued to decrease. 7 Likewise, a report published in Marine Policy found that agreements allowing foreign seafood companies to fish in West African waters only yielded revenues between 2 and 8 percent of the predicted value of the catch landed.8 Previous bottom trawling practices have already dramatically impacted the profitability of this industry, and companies’ profits will dwindle further if this process continues.

OTHER APPROACHES’ DOWNFALLS

Past approaches to limit bottom trawling have typically come from governments rather than individual businesses. Administrations have focused on different bans and policy actions yet struggled to please all stakeholders. For instance, governments in Indonesia and Costa Rica instituted bans on bottom trawling that completely outlawed the practice. Unfortunately, many fishermen depended on bottom trawling for their livelihood in these countries, sparking tremendous backlash. The governments of Hong Kong and Belize released phased transitions to prohibit the practice but requirements were not planned effectively and fishermen were not incentivized to cease their operations.9

Other approaches have simply lacked the necessary enforcement to succeed. China implemented many sustainabilityminded policies throughout the 1970s to limit bottom trawling, such as issuing fewer fishing permits and reducing the area where fishermen can use bottom trawlers. However, researchers from the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries found that these policies failed to curtail any harmful impacts due to a lack of enforcement.10 Many European nations have also established policies to limit commercial trawling. Unfortunately, a recent report published by Oceana, a prominent ocean conservationist nonprofit, revealed that bottom trawlers have continued to fish illegally throughout the Mediterranean Sea. This report also highlighted that illegal trawling has continued to endure in these waters due to inaction from the European Union and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. These governing bodies failed to bolster their surveillance methods and enforce deterrent sanctions, ultimately allowing bottom trawling to continue harming the environment.11

While these efforts showed good intentions, they lacked enforcement and did not consider all stakeholders. Their struggles reveal that the solution to limiting bottom trawling cannot come through policy; instead, it must come from individual businesses such as Trident Seafoods. Unlike previous approaches, encouraging businesses to transition to more profitable and sustainable fishing methods would create value for all stakeholders.

Purse Seining And Its Shared Value

Seeing that bottom trawling is inherently unsustainable, Trident Seafoods should transition to purse seining to catch what was previously caught by bottom trawlers. Purse seines are large, vertically floating nets that boats use to encircle schools of fish identified on fishing sonars. These nets are often up to a mile long, and their base is drawn together to create a “purse” once fish are within the net.12 Following this closure, fishermen haul the net onboard and store the catch. Purse seining vessels are typically much smaller than bottom trawling vessels, yet they can catch the same species and operate in the same seasons as bottom trawlers.

Purse seining is one of the most environmentally friendly and profitable fishing practices available. Since purse seining targets a specific school of fish, bycatch, also referred to as unintentionally caught invertebrates, tends to be between 1 to 8 percent of the overall catch.13 Compared to bottom trawling’s average bycatch rate of approximately 46 percent, the new rate will be significantly lower. 14 This method will be far more financially beneficial as well, since these trawlers will no longer deplete other fish stocks, allowing vessels that target other species to catch more fish. Purse seining also keeps marine habitats intact by hovering above the seafloor. Due to this lack of contact, purse seiners do not create “dead zones,” enabling them to continue fishing in the same regions, spending less on fuel. Moreover, the Journal of Cleaner Production suggests that purse seining generally has a lower fuel use intensity than most trawling fisheries, meaning it exhausts less fuel per ton of fish caught.15 These differences make it increasingly evident that purse seining is more environmentally friendly, less costly, and more profitable for businesses.

Considering Trident Seafoods already operates purse seiners throughout Alaska, the company could replicate these current procedures when transitioning away from bottom trawling. This change will involve trawl fleet repurposing and purse seiner fleet development.

The company will need tender vessels to support the boats and transport their catches to processing plants. Since many of Trident Seafoods’ trawl catcher vessels operate as tender vessels for salmon fishing, this transition will be relatively seamless and ensure jobs are kept. However, due to the size of Trident Seafoods’ trawling fleet, not all vessels can serve as tenders. As many of them already do, the remaining boats will perform charter work for fisheries, offshore research, or tourist activities.16 By repurposing these vessels and their crews to complete other activities they are familiar with, Trident Seafoods can continue to use its assets and ensure its employees keep their positions.

As the company repurposes its bottom trawling fleet, it will begin buying and building new purse seining vessels. Since Trident Seafoods will no longer utilize bottom trawlers, it can use its remaining subsidies to finance the development of new boats. The company can also sell trawl catcher-processors that cannot provide tender, tourist, or research services to acquire additional capital. During the development of these boats, Trident Seafoods will train the remaining employees to operate them. The employees who worked aboard purse seiners in the past will lead the training to ensure a successful transition. After Trident Seafoods finishes constructing its practice. The company’s effort to transition away from bottom trawling will benefit the fight to reduce the harmful practice; however, it will require collective action from the global seafood industry to prompt sufficient change. Moreover, many employees and shareholders may initially resist the change for the sake of greater comfort and short-term returns. Several employees who worked aboard lose more money, and the environment will suffer more irreversible damage.

Looking Forward

Currently, the United Nations’ goal to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” by 2030 is not feasible. 18 However, through Trident Seafoods’ transition to purse seining, there would be substantial progress towards a future in which society uses the world’s oceans sustainably. And it must not stop there. As the success of this approach becomes increasingly apparent in the global seafood industry, Trident Seafoods’ actions should motivate other companies to transition away from bottom trawling.

Now, other companies around the world can improve this approach to be even more sustainable and profitable. Then, innocent animals will no longer die from wasteful bottom trawling. Fishing companies will no longer rely upon government subsidies to ensure their profitability. Most importantly, the ocean and the marine life that society depends upon will no longer suffer at the hands of a destructive fishing practice.

new purse seining vessels, it can immediately begin fishing with newly trained employees and ensure it continues to meet demand. The company can then provide greater returns to its shareholders with this plan as it earns larger profits by reducing expenses. As a result, Trident Seafoods can create significant value for its investors, employees, and the environment through this approach while increasing its profitability and substantially reducing its bottom trawl usage.

Potential Drawbacks

Although this approach will provide value to stakeholders, increase profitability, and reduce Trident Seafoods' trawling efforts, it is not a global solution to the unsustainable bottom trawlers throughout their careers, for example, may not comply with the transition to purse seining. Likewise, investors may be skeptical of the high up-front costs of developing a new purse seiner fleet as it would initially produce smaller returns.

Despite these criticisms, transitioning away from bottom trawling is necessary. The inherent unsustainability of this practice will prompt the government to stop providing subsidies to fishing businesses in the foreseeable future. Without this funding, “the bulk of the world’s bottom trawl fleet operating in the high seas will be operating at a loss, and unable to fish.”17 Thus, Trident Seafoods must shift away from bottom trawling; otherwise, employees will lose more jobs, investors will