Making Seafood Imports Safer by Reducing Illegal Fishing

The global seafood trade is complex, far-reaching, and-in many cases-opaque. Unfortunately, these conditions can mask international cases of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

In our new podcast episode, we'll hear from Alexa Cole, director of the Office of International Affairs, Trade, and Commerce, about updates to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program. It's a reporting and record-keeping program designed for us to gather information about certain seafood imports to be able to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud.

Alexa discusses new technology, including AI machine learning tools, used to increase data collection and expand the program. After soliciting feedback from more than 7,000 interested and relevant parties-including seafood industry professionals, foreign governments, researchers, and civil society groups-the updates will strengthen the program's impacts and increase its effectiveness in combatting IUU fishing.