Seafood is essential to food and nutritional security, providing over 3 billion people with nearly 20 percent of their animal protein. Also known as aquatic food — including plants and animals grown in or harvested from the water — it is the main source of essential nutrients for many vulnerable communities around the world with little access to alternatives.

With the global population steadily increasing, seafood consumption has doubled in the last 50 years and is likely to double again by 2050. Over a third of fish stocks are already overfished and 60 percent are fished to their maximum potential (just over half of the seafood we eat is farmed while the rest comes from wild stocks). This has a high impact on the health of aquatic ecosystems.

Meanwhile, around one-third of seafood is either lost or wasted.

In some regions, much seafood loss occurs during processing when a large proportion of the fish remains unused — the skin, bones and fish heads are often discarded. Known as by- or co-products, these parts can represent between 30 to 70 percent of the fish.

To maximize nutrition and value of seafood for all, it is vital that 100 percent of the fish is used — and it is arguably an ethical imperative, not just an economic one.

The issue of food loss and waste is already garnering attention: UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 looks to halve food loss and waste by 2030; and a new ocean action agenda put forward in December by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy also identified reducing seafood loss and waste as a priority area.

Here are five ways to accelerate loss reduction, improve efficiency of nutrition recovery and maximize the value of seafood:

  1. 'What gets measured gets managed': Collect and analyze data
  2. Share data and lessons learned on seafood loss and waste
  3. Increase operational efficiency
  4. Create new products, using by-products
  5. Build demand for underused fish parts

Read the full article about seafood waste by Sophie Wood at GreenBiz.