Crew well-being on board fishing vessels is an increasing concern for the global seafood industry, which has been historically focused on environmental sustainability. Seafood supply chain actors around the world are adopting tools and taking action to provide assurance of human rights and crew well-being in their source fisheries. However, guidance on the role and complementarity of these tools is often lacking or complex. There is a need to understand best practice, ongoing research, and emerging initiatives to address shortcomings and identify ways forward to work together to create change.

This session will be a townhall discussion on vessel certification programs and risk assessment tools, and the ways in which existing tools are being used and developed. It will then pose a series of questions to a range of stakeholders – retailers, pre-competitive partnerships, NGOs, fishermen organisations, and standard holders – to reflect on best practices, current challenges, and the role of emerging crew well-being initiatives (e.g., worker-driven social responsibility) for supporting well-being on fishing vessels globally.