Improving the sustainability of global seafood production requires a more accurate and deeper understanding of current environmental performance, progress to date, and priority areas for improvement. The environmental performance component of the Sustainable Seafood Data Tool consolidates data from six global certification and ratings programs to provide NGOs and businesses a more comprehensive overview of seafood sustainability.

The latest version of the environmental performance component, launched in the winter of 2022, adds a new Data Deficient (nei) Species Groups category. This spotlights production reported to the FAO without species identification which makes it impossible to assess environmental performance. Nearly 10% of global production, the majority of which is from wild capture fisheries in Asia, is not properly identified. Until these countries improve their data collection and reporting, this 20M mt of production will remain a sustainability black hole.