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FISP projects: grants and contracts awarded in round 2 of the scheme

Updated 17 July 2023

1. Grants

Organisations that have been awarded grants through FISP part A to fund the development of a research proposal. These grants can be used to apply for a contract later in the scheme through FISP part B.

The following project summaries were provided by the applicants.

1.1. Holderness Fishing Industry Group (HFIG)

In partnership with:

• University of Hull

Name of project: Addressing the impact of lost shell fishing gear (LSG)

Amount of award: £19,834

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

Develop a focused program to address the impact of LSG from an ambitious list of industry desires including:

• putting UK Shellfishers’ contribution of lost gear in global perspective

• modelling mortality of target and non-target species caused by LSG (‘ghost fishing’)

• revealing LSG’s hidden financial impacts

• determining flux of plastic pollution from LSG and potential for environmental harm

• identifying practices affecting chances of losing gear and communicate back to fishers to reduce loss

• trialling a community-owned multibeam echosounder to aid in ‘intelligent’ recovery of missing gear

Action

Define a list of investigations related to the aims and meet with fishers from the Holderness Coast for additional ideas and prioritising questions.

Determine methods for research questions and identify knowledge, skills and resource gaps whilst expanding the consortium to include partners to resolve and address within budget.

Sea-trials will be undertaken using UoH’s echosounder and FIFISH ROV for resolving strings of creels.

A marketing specialist will be help deliver public outreach and crowdfunding campaigns.

Expected outcome

Identified practices that will reduce LSG and assess hidden costs (lost revenue potential) to industry and individuals.

The project will also assess regional contribution to the global problem of LSG, model target and non-target species’ mortalities associated with LSG and movement of creels in storm events.

It will qualify the contribution of LSG to marine pollution, especially microplastics and inform and engage both stakeholders and interested public in ‘ghostfishing’.

Finally, it will create a community-level gear location service and an industry-led initiative addressing lost shellfishing gear.

Status

Completed.

1.2. MarFishEco Fisheries Consultants

In partnership with:

• Seafish

• Peter Clarke (the Lily James)

• Andrew Mack (Bright Ray)

Name of project: Gear Trial Partnership Project (GTPP)

Amount of award: £19,927

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

One of the UK’s most valuable fisheries - Nephrops norvegicus / scampi - has long been plagued by poor selectivity with significant bycatch dominated by whitefish bycatch. The Gear Trial Partnership Project (GTPP) aims to consolidate the existing data and develop a rigorous, iterative gear trial, with gear modifications tailored to fishers over a broad geographic range, across varying situations. This will identify the most viable solutions to reduce bycatch, clarify which gear modifications show promise ecologically and economically, and highlight recent modifications yet to be formally trialled.

Action

Using a co-design approach, the GTTP will ensure a genuine collaboration between science, industry and management. Field visits, consortium workshops, key informant interviews and nationwide stakeholder engagement will lead to a deep understanding of the Nephrops sector’s diverse selectivity challenges. Stakeholder feedback will shape the design of the Part B proposal aimed at developing more selective trawl gears and providing valuable insight to inform the development and real implementation of future technical measures. Importantly, the GTTP will incorporate cost-benefit analyses that look at both the ecological and economic success of modified Nephrops trawls - the latter being something that (to date) has remained poorly accounted for.

Expected outcome

• improved collaboration and trust between all Nephrops fishing industry stakeholders

• consolidated knowledge of past and future gear innovations

• design of a clear pathway from gear trial to industry communication to actionable management - that is applicable UK-wide

• development of a Part B FISP submission

Status

Completed.

1.3. Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association

In partnership with:

• The Scottish Pelagic Processors Association

• University of Highlands and Islands

Name of project: Catch to batch scientific data tracking in UK pelagic fisheries

Amount of award: £19,954

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

Lack of traceability in fisheries is a problem that can undermine market access and prices when buyers and consumers do not have confidence in the sustainability credentials of fisheries. It is also a wasted opportunity to gather relevant information that can be useful to science and business alike.

Action

This scoping study will develop a research proposal to integrate fishery, biological and food quality data from pelagic fisheries in order to follow the fish from ‘catch to batch’. Applying principles of block-chain and quality assurance processes, the study will pinpoint the data transfer gaps and outline plans for connecting and maintaining them in the future.

Expected outcome

Immediate benefits of the scoping study include the specification of steps that data collectors can adopt to better connect the flow of information between the catching and processing sector, thereby verifying the provenance of fishery products and providing scientific data for use in stock assessments and research at the same time.

Status

Completed.

1.4. Seascope Fisheries Research Ltd

In partnership with:

• University of Glasgow

• Fruits of the Sea

Name of project: Cockle Survey Development

Amount of award: £16,316

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

In 1991, the Solway cockle fishery landed almost 5,000 tonnes of cockles which at today’s prices would have a first sale value of £5.21m. In 2009, this cockle fishery closed because the stock was not sufficiently dense to generate enough revenue to allow sustainable exploitation and management practices and full stock surveys have not been conducted in the Solway since 2015. The project aims to undertake a full stock survey using the same sampling methods used by Marine Scotland, so that the stock size can be estimated.

Action

This data will also be used to undertake calculations and to identify high density beds (donor sites) and low-density beds (recipient sites). The team are proposing a trial to evaluate whether relaying cockles from the donor sites into less densely populated recipient sites will provide benefits to the cockle stock.

Expected outcome

It is thought that by providing more space in both the donor and recipient beds, the cockles will have improved growth, less density-related mortality and that spat will have improved settlement opportunities due to less crowding. Local weather, topography and environmental conditions will also need to be considered to ensure that a recipient site is environmentally suitable. This will help restore the abundance and biomass in the depleted area of the Solway Firth. If stocks can be brought back to a level that would allow commercial fishing, it is hoped that a sustainable, well-managed fishery could again flourish in the Solway, generating well-needed income and jobs for the local and national economy.

Status

Completed.

1.5. University of Hull

In partnership with:

• KJP Shellfish

• Holderness Fishing Industry Group

• Fishing into the Future

Name of project: Investigation into the potential of an east-coast stone crab fishery

Amount of award: £19,848

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

Media interest resulting from the initial misidentification of a stone crab, Lithodes maja, as a king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus, a high value invasive crab species known to be found in Norwegian waters) raised the profile of this species locally and led to small quantities being landed on the East Coast being recognised.  Stone crabs have a high market value and could be a welcome opportunity for diversification of the potting fleet along the East Coast where species targeted by static gear fishers is limited. Previously, any landings would have been just recorded as ‘crab’ so there is limited data on their distribution and abundance.

Action

The project will do a desk study of what is known of this species in terms of its biology, ecology and reproduction as well as current fisheries in Europe and across the world. They will consult with fishers along the coast to try and assess what quantities of stone crab have been landed locally over the last few years and assess the availability of data relating to its known distribution in the North Sea and its likely distribution based on environmental parameters. This will inform some preliminary trials of pots along the east coast.  Gear development for these trials will be done in consultation with fishers.

Expected outcome

Having assessed the likely population of crabs along the east coast, in terms of numbers and whether they could form a sustainable fishery, a plan will be developed for a full-scale population and potential fishery assessment to be done along the North-East coast with a consortium of fishers who will be identified as part of the preliminary study.

Status

Completed.

1.6. University of Portsmouth

In partnership with:

• Angling Spirit

• Nature Metrics

• Southern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority

• Cefas

Name of project: Collecting biology, ecology, habitat and genetic data sampled from fish caught by citizen scientists

Amount of award: £19,976

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

Sustainable management of capture fisheries requires ecological and biological data for target species. However, for many in the UK appropriate data to make evidence-based management decisions are limited. This leads to unreliable local and national quotas and, ultimately, an unsustainable catch. Collecting ecological data requires significant investment (people and money) so one increasingly popular approach is to use members of the public (citizen scientists). Sea fishing is a globally popular activity so recreational sea anglers are a substantial group of highly motivated and engaged potential citizen scientists. The project will use the newly established annual sea angling competition located in the Solent to develop and test the citizen science data collection methods.

Action

Targeting five data-poor species/groups used in the competition: sea bass; black seabream; skates & rays; tope and smooth hound, the project will collect data on fish biology (species diversity and size measurements); ecology and habitat (spatial distribution and habitat utilisation) and genetic stock (reproductive isolation) by sampling those fish caught by the teams during the competition. In addition, from the georeferenced catch data in conjunction with sonar scans of the most fished areas, they will develop data collection methods to generate habitat-use maps. Finally, the use of novel eDNA (environmental DNA) sampling will be tested to identify the stock origin of fish species caught.

Expected outcome

By developing and testing these protocols, the project aims to improve the quality and quantity of long-term baseline data necessary to sustainably manage these five data-poor species/groups across the UK.

Status

Completed.

1.7. University of the Highlands and Islands

In partnership with:

• The Shetland Fish Producers Organisation

Name of project: Data collection and research on the ling fishery

Amount of award: £17,981

Length of project: 5 months

Project aims

To address the concerns of Scottish fishermen operating within the mixed demersal fishery who are increasingly reporting seasonally high abundances of ling (Molva molva) in ICES Sub area 4, to the extent that ling can be a ‘choke’ species.  Industry perceives that there is a lack of scientific understanding of the stock and are calling for increased data collection and research. The UK (Scotland) catch is significant within the substantial ling fishery in the NE Atlantic; the stock assessment is ‘uncertain’, and it is recognised that differences between survey trends and commercial catch rates exist.

Action

This study will document fishers’ observations of the seasonality and fluctuating abundances of ling; review available literature and identify knowledge gaps. The partnership will then co-design a research proposal prioritising areas of data collection and research that will address the needs of FISP Part B LOT 1 – Fisheries Data Collection. During the development of the Part B proposal, the project will invite participation from the wider Scottish industry and from national government thus ensuring that the project is inclusive, and that the utility of the results would be maximised, whilst managing industry expectation.

Expected outcome

This will include a project report, and the development of a Part B LOT 1 project proposal. The project will demonstrate industry-science collaboration, will increase industry understanding of what is involved in scientific research and will manage expectations of what will be achievable within the given resources and timescale.

Status

Completed.

2. Contracts

Organisations that have been awarded funding for contracts through FISP part B to carry out a full research project.

The following project summaries were provided by the applicants.

2.1. Aberystwyth University

In partnership with:

• Bangor University

• Carl Davies

• Welsh Fishermen’s Association

Name of project: Evaluating lobster fishery opportunities at an offshore wind farm in the UK

Amount of award: £283,970

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

In order to reach Net-Zero targets, large areas of the UK coastline will become dominated by Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs). Many of these developments will overlap with productive fishing grounds that currently support the fishing industry and coastal communities. If these two industries are to co-exist it is increasingly important to investigate the potential fishery opportunities within OWFs and gain an understanding how these opportunities can be enhanced.

This project aims to investigate and inform the co-location of OWF sites and static gear fishers targeting lobsters. Specifically, they aim to estimate populations of lobsters within an OWF, evaluate the most suitable methods for estimating lobster populations within OWFs, and provide information that would allow OWF developers to enhance fishing opportunities within future sites.

Action

• analyse and interrogate Catch Per Unit Effort data from an existing, unique 6 year lobster catch record from within OWF

• conduct Baited Remote Underwater Video surveys and a Mark-Release-Recapture study within OWF to estimate lobster density, distribution and abundance

• investigate benthic habitat characteristics of OWF sites that support enhanced lobster populations

Expected outcome

• data and a robust evidence base that will help to inform sustainable management of lobster fisheries

• generate evidence that will facilitate habitat enhancement of future OWF developments to provide optimal lobster fishing opportunities

• a case study demonstrating viable and sustainable fishing can take place within OWFs

• assessment of the suitable techniques to estimate lobster populations within OWFs

• standardised protocol for using catch records from plotting systems to create CPUE data

Status

Ongoing.

2.2. University of Essex

In partnership with:

• Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society

Name of project: Bass Tissue Bank

Amount of award: £245,042

Length of project: 19 months

Project aims

This project will study connectivity between coastal nursery habitats and adult populations in the southern UK and develop a European bass tissue bank.

European bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, have a complex life-history – juvenile life stages occupy estuarine and coastal nursery grounds for up to six years before recruiting to offshore areas as adults. There is little nursery habitat information about this non-quota, high economic and social value species; and little understanding of the relative productivity of different nursery habitats, e.g. estuaries vs coastal bays, to the parental stock. Emergence of novel genomic technologies allows cost-effective investigations of fine-scale connectivity between areas and life-history stages, as an alternative to tagging studies.

Action

Create a tissue bank of muscle, eye lens, and otolith samples from juvenile and adult bass sampled across inshore nursery areas and offshore fishery. They will use muscle samples to investigate genetic connectivity between areas and life stages (juveniles versus adults). In time, this tissue bank will provide unique opportunities to answer additional questions about other life history phenomena, for example, sub-lethal effects of pollution and habitat-specific growth rates (using otolith and lens chemistry). To maximise utility across other non-quota species, as bass share nursery areas with other data-poor species, they will also archive tissues from co-occurring fish species for future analyses.

Expected outcome

A tissue bank of juvenile and adult bass sampled from around the UK, and the population structure of juveniles and adults delineated using the latest molecular techniques to highlight important (over-represented) nursery areas.

Status

Ongoing.

2.3. The Fish Producers’ Organisation

In partnership with:

• Cefas

Name of project: Monitoring programme to collect biological data on national fisheries

Amount of award: £240,017

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

The project is a science-industry partnership to develop a cost-effective continuous monitoring programme to collect biological data on national fisheries that are not covered by the current national sampling programmes. The project has three main aims:

• set up a pilot for continuous monitoring of the catches of the English saithe targeting and Northern distant waters fleet, to collect biological data on main target species, with a view to developing a long-term continuous monitoring programme

• collect additional data on catch composition to contribute to the stock assessment for northern shelf saithe

• to advance understanding of stock identity and population structure for certain species (e.g., ling, tusk)

Action

Project methods will involve the Fish Producers’ Organisation (FPO) working with Cefas to co-design the sampling programmes. The resulting operational plans will be implemented following training in data collection. Resulting data will be analysed and used to report on catch composition, spatial catch patterns, catch-at-age composition and growth of the target species. Otoliths samples will be subject to otolith microchemistry analysis to provide information on life histories and population structure.

Expected outcome

Project outcomes are:

• to increase data available for the stock assessment for northern shelf saithe

• to address data gaps and knowledge, in particular for data limited and deep-water stocks, such as ling and tusk

• to use the skills and knowledge built by the project to enable sampling of the distant water fisheries to fulfil the UK obligations under retained EU regulations and commitments to international RFMOs

Status

Ongoing.

2.4. Marine Scotland Science

In partnership with:

• Marine Environmental Solutions Limited owned by The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF)

• Photosynergy Limited owned by the University of St Andrews

Name of project: CodSELect

Amount of award: £215,513

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

CodSELect aims to support North Sea Nephrops fishers with a new technical measure to reduce the capture of cod and maintain catch of their target species, which will allow improvements in sustainable catching, reduce discards and ultimately lead to a healthier, more sustainable UK fishing and seafood sector.

Action

CodSELect originated from previously observed behaviour of cod in an extensive series of laboratory tank trials, completed by Marine Scotland Science (MSS), where cod showed a constant and strong aversion to blue and green artificial light. CodSELect will exploit this known behaviour using the SELTRA sorting box with a 300 mm square mesh panel (SMP) on the top panel and with the novel addition of fibre optic cables, illuminated by LED light pods, on the lower panel. The addition of the artificial light would modify the natural behaviour of cod, to stay low down in the trawl where they remain relatively inactive, by encouraging cod to swim up, increasing encounter rates with the SMP and subsequently increasing escape of cod. CodSELect comprises of a series of tank trials, a research sea trial and a commercial sea trial in collaboration with Marine Environmental Solutions Limited (Scottish Fishermen’s Federation – SFF).

Expected outcome

CodSELect proposes to offer fishers a tool to improve selectivity of cod and reduce the likelihood of them becoming a choke species which has a significant negative financial impact for vessels.  If this system is proven successful in this fishery it could be rolled out as a technical measure in fisheries elsewhere too.

Status

Ongoing.

2.5. Cefas

In partnership with:

• Boris Net Co

• Seafish

• Brian Douglas (Sarah Louise)

• David Armstrong (Endurance)

• Jonathan Jordan (Incentive)

• Kris Johnson (F/V Palatine)

• Mark Olone (Zarlanda)

• Nigel Hull (Providence)

• DH Clark & PB Clark partnership (Lily James)

• Collin Graham (Stella Maris)

Name of project: Road test selective trawls in the Farn Deeps Nephrops fishery

Amount of award: £300,000

Length of project: 21 months

Project aims

This project aims to provide opportunity for a group of skippers working in the Farn Deeps Nephrops trawl fishery to ‘road test’ selective trawls, chosen from a ‘show room’ of designs that have demonstrated potential to reduce unwanted catches in limited scientific trials.

Action

A combination of methods to generate evidence and evaluate the performance of the selected trawls will be used. Skippers will self-report on the catches taken with the trawl designs during an initial testing and fine-tuning phase. Selected trawl designs showing the most promise will then undergo detailed testing, whereby Cefas scientists go aboard as part of experimental trials to quantitatively compare the performance of selected trawls and standard trawls. A statistically robust assessment will be applied to characterise the benefits of selected trawl designs, including reporting on their economic performance. Skippers will also provide qualitative feedback on their experiences of using the trawls.

Expected outcome

The outcomes will give participating skippers the chance to gain experience and confidence in using more selective trawls during routine commercial fishing operations. It will demonstrate the potential to reduce unwanted catches of commercially important species in the Farn Deeps Nephrops fishery. The findings from the trials will be shared with the project partners and other relevant stakeholders and will support the government to achieve the environmental objectives of the Fisheries Act, by, supporting the uptake new gear modifications to reduce environmental impacts and unwanted catches, informing the development of relevant Fishery Management Plans, future catch and discard policies and technical measures.

Status

Ongoing.

2.6. Bangor University

In partnership with:

• Cefas

• Imperial College London

• South Western Fish Producers’ Organisation

• Western Fish Producers’ Organisation

Name of project: The impact of mobile demersal fishing on blue carbon in seabed sediments

Amount of award: £300,000

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

Seabed sediments are one of the largest stores of carbon. Recent studies have raised the alarm over the impacts of mobile-bottom gears on sediment carbon, suggesting that disturbance by mobile bottom gears lead to carbon emission equivalent to global aviation. In response, there have been calls to ban all mobile bottom gears. These claims are however disputed and likely to be overestimated by one-to-two orders-of-magnitude, but have nevertheless highlighted that our understanding of the effect of trawling on seabed blue carbon is limited. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the impacts of two widely-used mobile fishing gears on sediment carbon stores.

Action

This is a collaboration between Bangor University, Imperial College London, the Western Fish Producers’ Organisation, the South Western Fish Producers’ Organisation and CEFAS. The project will determine the effect of scallop dredging and beam trawling on seabed carbon stocks and resuspended carbon, by carrying out experimental fishing at different intensities on the grounds that these fisheries typically exploit, and sampling before and after fishing.

Expected outcome

These estimates provide a greater understanding of how mobile bottom gears affect blue carbon in seabed sediments that is essential to inform the consideration in the designation of MPAs and avoid disproportionate restriction on the fishing industry that may be driven by previous unrealistic projections. It will inform potential changes in practices by the fishing industry as well as policy makers.

Status

Ongoing.

2.7. Bangor University

In partnership with:

• Natural Resources Wales

• Welsh Fishermen’s Association

• Welsh Government Marine and Fisheries Division

• Marine Ecological Solutions

Name of project: Seabed Ecosystem Project

Amount of award: £299,999

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

The ecosystem impacts of pot fishing gears are poorly understood, as the majority of existing literature focuses on mobile gears. Recent scientific papers have highlighted this gap as a key research priority, as well as the potential for potting gears, typically considered as relatively benign, to negatively impact marine habitats and species. Following the recent introduction of new management measures in the Welsh whelk fishery, this lack of evidence has resulted in spatial closures to the fishery, and a loss of fishing opportunities. There is therefore an urgent need to collect evidence to understand the impacts of static fishing gears more generally and to facilitate industry involvement in the development of suitable management in Wales specifically. This project will fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the impacts of pot fishing on sensitive biogenic reef habitats.

Action

The research is a collaboration between Bangor University, the Welsh Fishermen’s Association, Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Government Marine and Fisheries Division. They will assess the extent, condition and biodiversity of seabed habitats and biological communities relative to potting effort and monitor fishing gear before, during and after deployment to quantify the footprint and physical and biological impact of individual pots, the groundlines and strings of multiple pots.

Expected outcome

The project will directly contribute to management of the Welsh whelk fishery and will be applicable to other pot fisheries elsewhere, which are widespread. The benefits will be increased industry confidence in management and improved sustainability of pot fisheries.

Status

Ongoing.

2.8. Ulster University

In partnership with:

• Anglo-North Irish Fish Producers Organisation

• Northern Ireland Fish Producers’ Organisation

• Agri-Food Bioscience Institute

• University of Limerick

• Alaska Pacific University

• Cornell University

• Fisheries Inshore New Zealand

Name of project: Assessment of seafloor fishing gear interactions and ecosystem response to disturbance

Amount of award: £299,569

Length of project: 24 months

Project aims

Seafloor impacts from fishing are a management concern and may ultimately constrain UK’s bottom tending gear fleets’ ability to access fishing grounds. This project will test and implement emerging tools to directly assess:

• seafloor fishing gear interactions

• ecosystem response to fishing gear disturbance

• apply these tools to assess potential seafloor impact reductions from modified fishing gears

Action

Ulster University and the NI Fisheries Producers Organisations proposal is based on the application of technologies for seafloor mapping in determining the interactions between commercial fishing gear and the ecosystems. The project encompasses a team of scientists, engineers and fishing industry with expertise in marine robotics, seafloor mapping, fisheries impacts and gear technology.

The aim of this work will be to understand how fishing gear interacts with the seabed using a combination of technologies including pressure sensors, high-frequency seafloor acoustics and towed video arrays.

Expected outcome

These advancements will improve the evidence base for the design of fisheries management measures in MPAs and support development of novel gear designs or fishing practices that reduce seafloor contact. Combined, methods generated from this project to monitor seafloor dynamics can both improve regulators’ ability to manage ecosystems, as well as support opportunities for fisheries stakeholders to address fishery-habitat interactions working towards MSC certification. With collaborative work spanning fisheries, science and management this project will help to increase the cooperation between the fishing industry, scientists, and government agencies responsible for the monitoring and maintenance of our common interest – long-term sustainability of the shared marine resource.

Status

Ongoing.

2.9. Atlantic Edge Oysters (Tethys Oysters Ltd)

In partnership with:

• Envision Marine Ltd

• University of Essex

Name of project: Ecosystem Benefits of UK Oyster Aquaculture Sites

Amount of award: £155,015

Length of project: 18 months

Project aims

The aim of the proposed research is to determine ecosystem benefits provided by oyster aquaculture by measuring biodiversity and denitrification activity at a variety of UK sites.

Action

The interactions of oyster aquaculture with the marine environment will be explored at sites in England and Wales. These include three Pacific oyster farms using off-bed rack and bag systems in Pembrokeshire, Northumberland and Devon. Other sites include a feral Pacific oyster site in Devon and an historic oyster bed near Swansea, commercially restocked with native oysters in 2021.

Methodologies

Surveys at oyster sites will measure:

• species abundance and richness of epifauna above and below rack and bag systems during submersion, primarily using camera systems

• species abundance and richness of infauna in sediment samples below oyster racks

• abundance and activity of denitrifying/nitrifying microorganisms on oyster site substrates, through genomic analysis

• replicated methodology at a control area for each site with similar environmental conditions (depth, aspect, substrate, exposure)

At the ranched native oyster site, surveys will involve:

• drop-down video (DDV) and grab samples to measure abundance and richness of epifaunal and infaunal species, as well as progress of restocked oysters

Expected outcome

Evidence regarding the denitrification and biodiversity services provided by oyster aquaculture would be communicated to consumers, industry and decision makers to increase understanding and promote awareness of the ecosystem benefits provided by aquaculture. This information would support policy decisions and improve accessibility and acceptance of a low carbon, sustainable seafood resource.

Status

Ongoing.