ABSTRACT
The sustainable seafood movement comprises a range of ‘market-based’ initiatives. This chapter first outlines the how the seafood movement has developed this market-based theory of change, before providing an overview of the main certification and recommendation lists. We reflect on how retailers, consumers, states and producers have responded to these predominantly NGO-controlled initiatives over time. We then outline three ongoing challenges around market-based sustainability initiatives: how these initiatives continue to exclude the majority of producers around the world, how the dominance of market-led change veils a range of other impacts seafood initiatives have on sustainability, and how a focus on the individual limitations of market-based instruments undermines a wider understanding on their collective impact. We conclude that the failure to respond to these debates has been central to the proliferation of initiatives under the seafood movement, as well as the emergence of a range of alternative ‘beyond labelling’ approaches.
