Sea Pact Member Update: Advancing Electronic Monitoring and Traceability for Sustainable Tuna
By Stacy Schultz (member Sea Pact Member Board, Fortune Fish and Gourmet) and Alvaro Teran (Senior Advisor for the Large-Scale Fisheries Program at The Nature Conservancy)
In late 2024, Sea Pact was approached by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) about their ongoing electronic monitoring (EM) and first-mile traceability pilot project in a Costa Rican longline tuna fishery. This pilot aims to address a traceability challenge present in many high-value fisheries by integrating RFID sensors and verifying the process through electronic monitoring systems. TNC’s request was simple: Do any Sea Pact members source tuna from Costa Rica, and would they be interested in learning more about the pilot? TNC was eager to understand the market’s interest in supporting this kind of initiative — and what considerations might be important from a buyer’s perspective.
Because Costa Rica is a key sourcing region for several Sea Pact members — and tuna is a priority species in Sea Pact’s sustainability efforts — multiple members quickly expressed interest in engaging with the project.
Over the following months, Sea Pact staff and a dedicated sub-group of members — including Acme Smoked Fish, Culimer USA, Fortune Fish & Gourmet, J.J. McDonnell, Santa Monica Seafood, Seattle Fish, and Seacore — began meeting regularly with project stakeholders. These included Alvaro Teran (Senior Advisor for the Large-Scale Fisheries Program at TNC), Robert Nunez (owner of the F/V Miss Jessy), as well as representatives from Integrated Monitoring (EM technology provider), Wholechain (traceability platform), and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.
Benefits Beyond the Boat
What makes this project stand out is the breadth of benefits EM technology can offer — benefits that go far beyond environmental stewardship alone:
Environmental: EM provides accurate, verifiable data on catch, bycatch, and fishing effort — essential for science-based management. More precise data enables better decision-making and supports healthier tuna stocks and ecosystems.
Social: Transparent monitoring can strengthen labor accountability onboard and reduce the risk of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Quality: The pilot also tracks key quality indicators, such as how quickly fish are chilled after capture. One vessel captain even used EM video footage to train crew on improved handling techniques — demonstrating the tech’s practical value at sea.
Traceability: With Wholechain involved, the project links vessel-level data to supply chain systems, enhancing transparency and ensuring compliance with global import regulations. This builds consumer trust and strengthens product claims around legality and sustainability.
Thanks to the direct involvement of Sea Pact members’ procurement teams, the project team has been able to gain real-time feedback on both the market challenges and opportunities that EM and improved traceability could help address.
“This initiative is about building a more transparent and accountable tuna supply chain that benefits both people and nature,” says Alvaro Teran, project lead. “With Sea Pact members at the table, we’re ensuring the system is informed by real-world seafood sourcing needs — which increases the chances it can scale and succeed.”
Fortune Fish & Gourmet worked with Alvaro and his team in March 2025 to import tuna from the F/V Miss Jessy, which was featured at a dinner during Seafood Expo North America. Read more about the event here.
Supporting Sea Pact’s Strategic Vision
This project exemplifies Sea Pact’s evolving strategic direction — one that emphasizes collective influence to drive change. As we move forward, Sea Pact is focusing its efforts on deeper, more strategic engagement in initiatives that can generate measurable impact.
The EM and traceability project in Costa Rica is a model for that approach: collaborative, scalable, and built for lasting transformation. We know real change in seafood doesn’t happen in isolation — it happens when forward-thinking companies come together to amplify their voice, share knowledge, and invest in solutions in priority regions and sectors.
This initiative isn’t just about implementing new technology. It’s about setting the foundation for stronger policy, better compliance, and more equitable, sustainable outcomes — for harvesters, fisheries, and the seafood supply chain at large.
What’s Next?
We’re excited to continue working alongside TNC, Wholechain, Integrated Monitoring and other partners as the project progresses. Over the coming months, we aim for more Sea Pact members to begin importing tuna from participating vessels into the U.S. and Canadian markets — while also providing feedback that ensures the system meets real supply chain and market needs.
By aligning this work with Sea Pact’s strategic focus on collective action for sustainability, we’re not just advancing our individual sourcing goals — we’re helping to create a future where responsible tuna is the norm.