Supply Chain Analysis

The Walton Family Foundation describes its goal for the environment as “sustaining the resources that sustain us.” In fisheries, this includes innovative fisheries management practices, building supply and demand for sustainable seafood, and engaging the next generation. At the request of the Walton Family Foundation, Responsible Alpha investigated the economic challenges and tools available in the New England groundfish fishery and the Gulf of Mexico reef fisheries. We conducted interviews and site visits in Cape Cod and the Islands, Maine, and Mississippi. We also conducted remote interviews with thought leaders in the Alaska salmon fishery. The fisheries studied were highly complex, and faced significant headwinds, due to changing management priorities, climate change, and global markets.

Responsible Alpha, through this study, found in order to secure sustainable fisheries, some financial standardization to address weaknesses in liquidity, marketability, and contract completion will be required. We provided opportunities and solutions to address these problems including creating a risk pool to allow for easier access to capital, adopting accounting rules for fisheries to more accurately forecast revenue and cost of goods sold, and establishing or supporting community development corporations which would help protect equity and facilitate investment. Along with these opportunities we provided other methods of improvement for financial barriers within fisheries including creating a transparent pricing system in the market and human capacity development for future generations of fishermen.

As a result, Responsible Alpha supported U.S. leaders in sustainable fisheries to consider alternative financing mechanisms to transition fisheries and the communities that depend on them to a more stable and long-term growth trajectory.