Giving Compass' Take:

• The World Wild Fund, start-up TraSeable, a small fishing company called Sea Quest, and a blockchain company called Viant are all partnering to properly tag and identify seafood throughout the supply chain so that consumers know exactly what they are eating and where it is coming from. 

• What are potential risks with this pilot program? How can blockchain help this project along? What are the downsides of using blockchain? 

• Read about three seafood funds that are trying to invest in sustainable fisheries. 

From overfishing to species mislabeling to slavery, the seafood industry is rife with dilemmas and abuses. Navigating the fish counter is an eater’s nightmare.

In 2013, the non-profit organization Oceana conducted genetic tests on fish samples from cities across the country, including Austin, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., and found that 59 percent of the fish sold as “tuna” at restaurants and grocery stores was mislabeled.

If you can’t even be sure you’re eating the species you were sold, how can you know with any confidence where your fish came from or whether it was caught sustainably and legally?

But a new project backed by WWF aims to make the seafood supply chain less opaque, promising completely traceable fish from “bait to plate,” or “boat to throat.” Working with a Fijian tech startup called TraSeable, a small fishing company called Sea Quest, and a Brooklyn blockchain company called Viant, WWF is piloting a system that uses a combination of radio-frequency identification chips—or RFID tags—and QR codes to track tuna on a blockchain-based platform as it moves through the supply chain.

Proving the provenance of a fish requires documenting a long list of facts and attributes, according to TraSeable founder Kenneth Katafono. Among the data points he says should be tracked for fish going to the domestic market are: species, weight, location caught, ownership and authorizations of the vessel, and worker identities.

What all of this means, practically speaking, is that in the near future, American eaters may be able to purchase tuna labeled with a QR code that can be scanned to reveal when and where the fish was caught, and by whom.

Read the full article about future of seafood by Jessica McKenzie at The New Food Economy