Position paper: Less and Better - reshaping the EU seafood system

Seas At Risk has developed a position paper on the future of EU seafood systems, examining how European seafood production and consumption can operate within ecological limits while ensuring environmental sustainability and social fairness. The paper focuses specifically on the European Union context, where seafood consumption levels are high and increasingly disconnected from the ecological capacity of European marine ecosystems. It highlights the growing dependence of the EU on imports, the concentration of consumption around a small number of high-impact seafood products, and the environmental pressures linked to industrial fishing and intensive aquaculture.

The position paper calls for a transition towards “less but better” seafood consumption and production in Europe. It advocates for reducing overall seafood consumption, prioritising low-impact fisheries, supporting more diverse and lower trophic seafood options such as algae and molluscs, and shifting away from destructive fishing practices and intensive carnivorous aquaculture. While the paper focuses on marine seafood systems in the EU, it also recognises the important role that fisheries and aquaculture play globally for food security and livelihoods, particularly in coastal and developing communities.