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June 27, 2022

Fish Right Eat Right Forum – Closing Data Gaps with Technology

 

The Fish Right Eat Right (FRER) Forum: Closing Data Gaps with Technology, was held today on June 27th, 2022 at the Radisson Fort George Hotel and Marina.

The objective of the forum was to highlight the ways technology is currently being used in fisheries management by various partners of the Fish Right Eat Right initiative, as well as highlight the outcomes of the project Market Based Incentives for Responsible Fishing.

The Fish Right, Eat Right program started a few years ago in 2016, initially targeting restaurants and hotels, with the plan to expand to include cooperatives, fish markets, supermarkets and other seafood purveyors in the future. For restaurants, the program will help match consumer demand for legal, healthy products with a supply chain that will deliver. The program will also help restaurants identify alternative seafood options for consumption, that can help reduce fishing pressure on species that are over-exploited, threatened, or endangered.

OCEANA Belize has been piloting a local project called Market Based Incentives for Responsible Fishing and through funding from the IDB, a virtual marketplace app with an e-monitoring and e-reporting component was developed. Jacinta Gomez – Outreach and Project Director of Oceana Belize expanded more stating: “We know that fish fraud is real unfortunately, so a huge part of this has been capacity building and awareness among locals. You’ve seen our adds featuring Chef Sean Kuylen on how to avoid fish fraud and ensure that your fish fillet has the skin patch as mandated by the regulations. And so what this technology is doing, is ensuring that you can actually see the fish being caught and you can know what gear is being used, the e-reporting app shows you who caught the fish; in what area was it caught.”

Presenters at the forum included representatives from: the Belize Federation of Fishers, Oceana in Belize, Shellcatch, WCS Belize, Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), Belize Tourism Board/ Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Fisheries Department – Belize, Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association, The Nature Conservancy and Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium.

You can view the featured FRER Forum video here!