sustainablefish.org

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) helps companies improve fisheries and aquaculture sustainability by bringing industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics together, then providing tools, expertise, and expert guidance that companies can act on. It is aimed at seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers that want to support long-term sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture regions. SFP's stated guiding principle is industry leadership: it holds that all sustainable seafood solutions must involve the market, and that retail partners and their suppliers drive change across the seafood value chain.

What SFP offers companies

SFP describes its role as convening stakeholders and then offering tools and expertise so they can jointly find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people. For a company, that translates into three practical elements:

• Tools and resources to support management of fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability.
• Expert guidance and actionable solutions intended to elevate existing sustainability commitments.
• A multi-stakeholder table where industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics work on solutions together.

SFP positions itself as "the #1 trusted choice for companies looking to improve fisheries and aquaculture," and its guidance is framed for major seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers alike.

The two impact areas

SFP organizes its work around two areas, both of which map to how a company's sourcing decisions play out on the water and in communities.

Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods

SFP promotes shared responsibility among stakeholders to ensure healthy oceans, resilient fisheries, and thriving coastal communities. The premise is that everyone who benefits from marine resources has a role in sustaining them — so a company's engagement is treated as part of the solution rather than an outside intervention.

Biodiversity & Nature

Thriving fisheries only exist in healthy habitats. SFP bridges the gap between companies that want to protect biodiversity and nature and organizations already doing work on the ground and in the water. For a company, this means its sustainability commitments can connect to existing conservation work rather than starting from scratch.

How the collaboration model works

The mechanism SFP describes is a convening-and-tooling model rather than a certification or a one-off audit:

1. Convene — SFP brings industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics to the same table.
2. Equip — it offers its tools and expertise to that group.
3. Solve jointly — the participants find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people.
4. Drive through the market — retail partners and their suppliers carry the change across the entire seafood value chain.

For example, a seafood buyer that wants to improve a specific sourcing region would, in this model, work through SFP's tools and guidance alongside the other stakeholders in that region rather than acting alone.

What to expect if you engage

SFP frames the starting point as a "sustainability journey" — companies begin by using its tools and resources, then rely on expert guidance to turn commitments into action. Impact, in SFP's framing, is measured on the water, at the farm, for the ecosystem, and in the community.

SFP also states that it supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and it maintains a sign-up for news and updates on its work.

Where to start

• Seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers: SFP's tools and resources are explicitly aimed at supporting management of fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability.
• Companies wanting to act on biodiversity: the Biodiversity & Nature area is the entry point for connecting with organizations already working on the ground and in the water.
• Companies focused on coastal communities and governance: the Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods area covers shared responsibility among stakeholders.

SFP's own site is the place to begin the sustainability journey it describes, and its Industry Partners and Impact Stories sections show how other companies have engaged.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is a nonprofit that works on improving fisheries and aquaculture by bringing industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics together. Its guiding principle is industry leadership: SFP holds that lasting sustainable seafood solutions must involve the market, and it works with retail partners and their suppliers to drive change across the seafood value chain. If you are a seafood buyer, supplier, or producer looking for tools and expert guidance on sustainability, SFP is oriented toward you.

What SFP does

SFP describes its role as convening different stakeholders at the same table, then offering tools and expertise so they can jointly find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people. The organization frames this as shared responsibility — everyone who benefits from marine resources has a role in sustaining them.

Impact areas

SFP organizes its work around two stated impact areas:

The underlying logic SFP states: thriving fisheries only exist in healthy habitats, so biodiversity and nature work is treated as connected to fishery health rather than separate from it.

Who it is for

SFP positions itself as a resource for:

• Major seafood buyers — retailers and others whose purchasing decisions can move suppliers
• Suppliers — companies in the value chain responding to buyer sustainability requirements
• Producers — those operating at the fishery or farm level

For these groups, SFP offers tools, resources, and expert guidance intended to support management of fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability, and to help elevate existing sustainability commitments.

How to engage

SFP's site points to a few entry points depending on your role:

• Start your sustainability journey — for companies beginning or formalizing sustainability commitments
• Meet our Industry Partners — to see which companies work with SFP
• Impact Stories — case examples of how SFP brings people together on fisheries and aquaculture improvement
• News and updates — SFP offers an email signup for ongoing updates

SFP also states that it supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

What to keep in mind

SFP is a partnership and convening organization, not a certification body — its stated approach is to work through industry leadership and multi-stakeholder collaboration rather than to issue its own seafood labels. If your goal is to understand what sustainability commitments look like in practice, or to find a partner for fishery or aquaculture improvement work, SFP's tools and partner network are the relevant starting points. If your goal is a consumer-facing certification mark, you would be looking at a different type of organization.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) organizes its work around two impact areas: Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods and Biodiversity & Nature. Both sit within a broader approach in which industry leadership is the guiding principle—SFP states that all sustainable seafood solutions must involve the market, and that its retail partners and their suppliers drive change across the seafood value chain. If you are a seafood buyer, supplier, or producer trying to understand where SFP focuses its tools and expertise, these two areas are the framework to know.

Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods

SFP's premise here is that everyone who benefits from marine resources has a role to play in sustaining them. The organization promotes shared responsibility among stakeholders to pursue three linked outcomes:

• Healthy oceans
• Resilient fisheries
• Thriving coastal communities

This area is the governance-and-people side of SFP's work: it treats fishery health and community well-being as connected rather than separate goals, and it depends on bringing industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics to the table together.

Biodiversity & Nature

SFP's framing for this area is direct: thriving fisheries only exist in healthy habitats. Its role is to bridge the gap between:

• Companies that want to take action to protect biodiversity and nature, and
• Organizations already doing work on the ground and in the water

So if your company has a sustainability commitment but no direct conservation presence, this impact area describes how SFP connects that intent to existing on-the-ground efforts rather than duplicating them.

How the Two Areas Fit Together

The common thread is collaboration: SFP describes its model as bringing parties together, then offering tools and expertise so they can jointly find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people.

Where Impact Shows Up

SFP says it focuses on impact "on the water, at the farm, for the ecosystem, in the community," and publishes Impact Stories illustrating how it brings people together for fisheries and aquaculture improvement. It also states that it supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

What This Means If You're Evaluating SFP

• If you're a major seafood buyer, supplier, or producer, SFP positions its tools and resources as support for managing fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability, with expert guidance aimed at elevating existing sustainability commitments.
• If your interest is community or governance outcomes, the Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods area is the relevant entry point.
• If your interest is habitat and conservation, the Biodiversity & Nature area describes the matching function between corporate action and field organizations.

For specifics on who SFP works with, see its Industry Partners; for a general overview of the organization, see what SFP is.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) describes its industry partners primarily as retail partners and their suppliers — the companies that buy, source, and produce seafood. SFP's stated guiding principle is "industry leadership," meaning it treats the market itself as the engine of change: through their purchasing decisions, retail partners and their suppliers are described as "driving change across the entire seafood value chain every day."

If you are a major seafood buyer, a supplier, or a producer, SFP positions its tools and resources as a way to support long-term sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture regions.

The partner categories SFP names

Based on SFP's own site content, the industry side of its partnerships breaks down into three roles:

SFP also says it brings industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics to the same table — so "industry partners" is one stakeholder group within a broader coalition, not the whole of SFP's network.

What the partnership model actually looks like

SFP's model is collaborative rather than certification-based. The site describes the approach as: convene the stakeholders, then "offer our tools and expertise, and help them jointly find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people."

Two impact areas frame where that work lands:

• Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods — promoting shared responsibility among everyone who benefits from marine resources, aiming at healthy oceans, resilient fisheries, and thriving coastal communities.
• Biodiversity & Nature — connecting companies that want to protect biodiversity with organizations already doing work "on the ground and in the water."

The logic SFP states is that thriving fisheries only exist in healthy habitats, so corporate sustainability commitments need to reach beyond the fishing vessel into ecosystem protection.

How to become an industry partner

SFP's site does not publish a step-by-step application process, eligibility criteria, fees, or membership tiers. What it does offer is a stated entry point: "Start your sustainability journey today," directed at major seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers, alongside a "Meet our Industry Partners" section and a sign-up form for news and updates.

Practical first steps, based on what the site makes available:

1. Review the Industry Partners listing to see whether companies like yours already participate.
2. Read the Impact Stories section to understand the kind of outcomes SFP reports.
3. Use the site's contact or sign-up channel to ask directly about partnership terms — since pricing, eligibility, and commitment levels are not published, those details have to come from SFP itself.

What to keep in mind

SFP's framing is that no single actor fixes a fishery. The site states plainly that "everyone has a role to play" and that "the only lasting solutions come from working together." For a company evaluating whether to engage, that means the value proposition is less about a label or certificate and more about joining a multi-stakeholder improvement process in specific fisheries and aquaculture regions.

Because SFP does not disclose partner obligations, costs, or a public onboarding procedure on the pages reviewed here, treat any specific commitment — time, data sharing, sourcing changes — as something to confirm with SFP before planning around it.