Seafish will use the workshop to showcase the current and planned initiatives underway globally that aim to reduce and ultimately eliminate social responsibility concerns in the seafood supply chain. This will allow those attending the workshop to highlight what the impacts will be, and where, and to identify any gaps that need to be addressed, laying the foundations for an overview of a global toolkit to be produced.
The workshop forms part of the Seaweb Seafood Summit taking place in Malta from 31 January to 3 February and Seafish are inviting those who are working in the field of social responsibility in seafood supply chains to form part of their panel on the day.
Kevin Hyland, the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, John Connolly from NFI and Steve Trent from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) are already confirmed to take part.
Tom Pickerell, Technical Director at Seafish who will be chairing the workshop, said: “We believe we are at a tipping point whereby major change could occur globally through joint action. To assist this, there needs to be consideration given to aligning the efforts made by various organisations and groups to ensure initiatives and guidance on social responsibility work together to have a greater impact on the issue.
“The workshop will look to set the current scene and we are keen to involve those who are doing work in this area to ensure we have as much insight and information as possible.”
Seafish has been active on social responsibility for more than 18 months, having set up the Seafood Ethics Common Language Group in summer 2014 which brings the UK industry together to discuss the issues. They recently published an assessment on the social issues in the UK supply chain including strategic recommendations and have just relaunched the Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) which now audits crew welfare on fishing vessels.
The Social Responsibility in Seafood workshop will take place as part of the Seafood Summit at the Hilton Hotel, St Julians, Malta on Sunday 31 January 2016 from 2pm to 6pm.
Anybody interested in working with Seafish on the workshop should contact Karen.green@seafish.co.uk. All other attendees should register via www.seafoodsummit.org.
