Case studies
Student researchers are developing case studies based on ARTIS data to highlight applications and insights from the data. All case studies will be included in a searchable database and included on this website.
If you are a student and are interested in contributing a case study, please get in touch!
If you are a student and are interested in contributing a case study, please get in touch!
Ongoing projects
The goal of ARTIS is to advance research addressing pressing questions related to aquatic food trade and consumption. Below is a selection of projects our team or collaborators are working on that use ARTIS data. We will provide updates as work is published, but feel free to get in touch if you have questions about the work or if you would like to work together.
Globalization of wild capture and farmed aquatic foods
Aquatic foods are highly traded foods, with nearly 60 million tonnes exported in 2020, representing 11% of global agriculture trade by value. Despite the vast scale, basic characteristics of aquatic food trade, including species, origin, and farmed versus wild sourcing, are largely unknown. Consequently, we have a coarse picture of aquatic food consumption patterns. Here, we present results from a new database of species trade and compute consumption for all farmed and wild aquatic foods from 1996-2020. Over this period, aquatic foods became increasingly globalized, with the share of production exported increasing 40%. Importantly, trends differ across aquatic food sectors. Global consumption also increased 33% despite declining marine capture consumption and some regions became increasingly reliant on foreign-sourced aquatic foods. As we look for sustainable diet opportunities among aquatic foods, our findings and underlying database enable greater understanding of the role of trade in rapidly evolving aquatic food systems.
Global analysis of FMFO-nutrient flows
Aquatic foods are a critical component of global diets, supporting the nutritional needs of approximately 1 billion people. Over the past 50 years, global seafood consumption has more than doubled, exceeding 20kg per capita. Aquaculture has outpaced wild-capture fisheries as the primary source of seafood for direct human consumption. However, the industry's reliance on fish meal (FM) raises questions about effective nutrient use and equitable seafood distribution. While the same quantity of seafood is exchanged between high- and low-income nations, most aquaculture exports consist of high-value species. By uniquely merging the Aquatic Resource Trade in Species (ARTIS) database and the Aquatic Food Composition Database (AFCD), we estimate the nutrition of wild catch to aquaculture products, assess changes in meeting nutritional needs due to trade flows, and the equity of resulting global nutrient flows. Specifically, we examine (i) whether current aquaculture production and trade flows efficiently convert seafood into nutritional products and (ii) the potential nutritional benefits of domestically retaining food-grade fish currently used for FM to support the nutrition of source countries. Our study highlights nutritionally vulnerable locations that would benefit the most from a shift in current aquaculture practices.
Trade impacts on aquatic food supply diversity
Global aquatic food production is highly diverse, representing over 2400 species farmed and caught with a variety of methods in both inland and marine environments. Global diversity of aquatic food production enables diversity in consumption, which is important for supplying a range of micronutrients, supporting a range of livelihoods, and is thought to enhance food system resilience. As aquatic foods become increasingly globalized, it is important to understand when and whether trade increases versus decreases aquatic food supply diversity. On the one hand, food trade can homogenize diets through two related pathways: by introducing foods that make diets more similar across countries and/or by out-competing diverse local foods. On the other hand, trade can make species available that otherwise would be unlikely to be produced domestically. To understand the role of trade in supply diversity, we further disaggregate species groups in ARTIS and use the resulting data set to compare supply diversity to production and trade diversity over time.
Trends in US aquatic food trade and consumption
The United States plays a central role in global aquatic food trade as one of the largest importers and exporters by value and volume. However, aggregated trade data and complex supply chains inhibit understanding how U.S. aquatic food consumption patterns have changed over recent decades. Here, we profile the evolution of US aquatic food species consumption and trade by method and origin. We leverage the new Aquatic Resource Trade in Species (ARTIS) database to first characterize the largest changes in U.S. consumption and trade. We demonstrate increasing reliance on foreign and farmed products, including the main species and trade relationships driving these patterns. Next, we present a history of US seafood trade and consumption for a representative species from each farmed/wild-foreign/domestic archetype. Finally, we discuss the implications of these shifts for the U.S. market and producers, including the challenges for traceability and sustainability. While we focus on the US, many of these changes reflect global shifts in aquatic food consumption and trade. As the aquatic food sector continues to evolve, it will remain important to track these shifts to understand the policy levers and potential role of aquatic foods in sustainable diets.
Global shark trade patterns and policy levers
Overfishing is the primary driver of extinction risk for sharks and rays globally. Shark meat is an important local food source in many countries, as well as an internationally traded product with a growing market that includes major traders and consumers in Europe, the Americas, and Oceania, in addition to Asian countries. Available empirical studies have found that many endangered and protected elasmobranch species are traded internationally, shark meat is frequently mislabelled, and in general sharks are associated with elevated risk of illegal, unreported, and unregulated activities. Fisheries have increasingly targeted elasmobranchs as many fish species decline, yet they are usually not managed as closely as other commercial species. Our understanding of the global shark meat supply chain is limited by a lack of recent data and detailed trade information about elasmobranchs, a highly diverse taxonomic group that is often aggregated into broad taxonomic groups and product descriptions. Changes in the conservation and management of sharks and in market dynamics in the past decade have likely affected the global supply chain, but to date there has not been a comprehensive global analysis of recent shark meat trade patterns that also considers the recent regulatory landscape. The aim of this project is to explore patterns in the global trade of shark and ray meat using the new ARTIS trade database, including key species, taxonomic groups, producers, and buyers. We will incorporate information on relevant policy instruments, including CITES appendices, national plans of actions for sharks, and shark finning regulations, as well as available DNA studies of shark meat products. The goal is to provide more current information to guide upcoming decisions affecting the fishing and trade of elasmobranchs, including CITES and CMS appendices, national conservation plans for sharks, and regional fisheries management organization measures.
Australia trade in potentially threatened species
Australia identifies as a global leader in marine conservation. As a commitment to the protection of biodiversity, including marine species, Australia is a Party to international treaties focused on conserving biodiversity, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), along with its national Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) and Threatened Species Strategy. These policies, however, do not necessarily reflect the sustainability of the seafood consumed in Australia due to trade. Australia exports up to half the seafood that it produces and imports 62-70% of the seafood that it consumes, primarily from places with poor governance and fisheries management. Despite being the most globally traded food commodity, some aspects of seafood trade are poorly regulated with numerous endangered species found in global trade records. In Australia, very little information is required to import seafood, making it difficult to assess their legality and/or sustainability. This has prompted us to investigate the extent to which Australia’s seafood trade patterns are consistent with its threatened species commitments. We interrogate ARTIS data to determine the extent to which Australia exports and imports seafood that is identified as a threatened species, according to the EPBC Act and IUCN Red List.
Trading environmental impacts of shrimp and prawn production
Shrimp and prawns are highly traded species worldwide, sourced from both fisheries and aquaculture. These two production methods are associated with different environmental impacts. For example, wild shrimp and prawn are typically caught using trawling gear which causes by-catch of other species and stock depletion. On the other hand, shrimp and prawn farming can cause land use change, and the release of nutrients. The production methods also have some similar environmental impacts, such as the emission of greenhouse gasses, but the magnitude of impact differs. Due to numerous economic and social factors, many countries export shrimp and prawns produced using one method but import shrimp and prawns produced using another method. This project's objective is to assess the exchange of environmental pressures associated with the international trade of shrimp. We will use the new ARTIS database and refer to relevant literature to categorize the environmental pressures associated with both wild-caught and farmed shrimp production. Through this analysis, we aim to uncover patterns of international shrimp trade and their corresponding environmental impacts.
Evaluating changes in the international trade of sharks, rays and chimaeras before and after CITES
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), is a multilateral agreement among governments that strives to protect endangered species and regulate their trade. In 2003, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) and whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) were added to this treaty. Since then, 12 species of sharks, all manta and devil rays, and sawfishes have also been included, leading to restrictions or bans of their trade. Nevertheless, the international market of shark meat continues to grow. Using the new ARTIS database, this project aims to evaluate changes in the international market of shark, ray, and chimaera meat as species are added to CITES. Additionally, by comparing trade flows in data available through CITES with ARTIS, we will evaluate the volume of unregulated (by countries that are not part of CITES agreements) and unreported trade of species listed under the treaty.
Tracking global nutrient and mercury flows/optimizing health of seafood in trade
The main objective of the proposed research is to develop regional scenarios for nutritionally optimized seafood harvests that minimize toxicants and maximize micronutrients in seafood in a warming ocean. To do this, we will leverage several unique global databases on 1) catch weighted flows of methylmercury from different regions of the ocean and a bioenergetic model for methylmercury accumulation in seafood as a function of ocean temperature; 2) the Aquatic Food Composition Database, a global database on micronutrients in marine seafood, and; 3) ARTIS, which provides information on seafood global trade flows. We bring together these three streams of research to calculate nutritionally optimized seafood harvests under different future ocean warming scenarios from GFDL’s Earth System Model. We develop geospatial optimization scenarios and run global simulations for future methylmercury and micronutrient concentrations in global seafood. By representing this current world scenario as a vector in a vector space of possible worlds, we systematically explore new harvesting strategies in future possible oceans modified by climate change. This vector space approach enables a wide range of data science techniques. In addition to traditional Monte Carlo and gradient descent approaches, we will enable new joint inference approaches that examine strategies that combine fish population management and time-varying harvest strategies.
Interactions between global aquatic food trade and small-scale fisheries
Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture support livelihoods for an estimated 100 million people and serve as an important nutrient source for around 1 billion people. As aquatic foods become increasingly globalized, understanding the interactions between international trade and small-scale fisheries is becoming increasingly important for supporting the nutrition security role of aquatic foods in local food systems. Using the Aquatic Resource Trade in Species (ARITS) and Aquatic Food Composition Database (AFCD), along with sectoral production data from Sea Around Us, we analyze interactions between trade and small-scale fisheries. First, we estimate the range of small-scale fishery sourced products entering export markets. Second, we identify potential hotspots for market competition with domestic small-scale products by evaluating which imported products are potential substitutes of those produced by domestic small-scale fisheries. Third, we compare the nutrient availability implications of the interactions by looking at the nutrient content of exported small-scale fishery derived products with imported products. This work will be conducted in the context of nutrient needs within countries based on nutrient supply and demographic profiles. Finally, we develop data-driven typologies based on the range of interaction types to evaluate the social, economic, and policy context and summarize available nutrition-sensitive policy tools.
Propagation of Production Shocks through Domestic and International Food Supply Chains
Shocks (i.e., sudden and unexpected drops) in food production are becoming more frequent, affecting the availability, accessibility, and stability of food supply, and presenting significant challenges towards achieving more sustainable food systems. Rapid globalization has resulted in increasingly interconnected food systems, enabling production shocks to more readily propagate across domestic and global supply chains. Yet little work has examined whether and to what extent individual production shocks propagate to affect domestic and international food supplies and whether certain food groups are more prone to these cascading shocks. Here we use a statistical shock detection approach to identify the co-occurrence of production shocks with other food supply chain elements - exports, imports, and supplies – for 96 food items and 172 countries from 1961 to 2020. Across all food items, we find that approximately a quarter (26%) of total production shocks propagated to domestic food supplies, whereas 5% diverted to export and did not affect the supply of food. Production shocks propagated to supply more frequently for certain food groups, including fruits (42%), starchy roots (48%), and vegetables (51%). From a consumption perspective, we also examined the co-occurrence of food supply shocks with shocks in other food supply chain elements (i.e., production, imports). Of all the food supply shocks, 27% of them coincide with domestic production shocks, and 12% coincide with import shocks, suggesting the propagation of production shocks through international trade. This study highlights to what extent production shocks propagate through food supply chains to affect the domestic and global supply of different food groups. Highlighting which food groups and items are most susceptible to such propagating shocks can help target opportunities for improving the resilience of food supply chains in the face of increasing socio-environmental variability.
Global trade and distant water fishing
International trade and distant water fishing are two mechanisms by which aquatic food resources are moved across borders. However, these two mechanisms differ (trade terms versus access agreements), can vary in the distribution of benefits, but can also be interrelated. Trade and distant water fishing can be structurally related when foreign catch is landed in the host country, sometimes for processing, creating an export from the foreign country to the host country, and possibly back again. Trade and distant water fishing can also create irregularities in official statistics because although fishery production data is typically reported by fishing vessel nationality, irrespective of where harvest occurs, catch by foreign nations operating under a joint venture may not appear in their production data but can later appear in trade data. This creates implausible apparent consumption values for certain countries. This analysis focuses on improving estimates of geographic origins of traded species within ARTIS to better account for distant water fishing and improve understanding of its intersection with trade and aquatic food distribution globally.
Systems Analyses to Explore Interventions for Change in Humboldt Fisheries
Overfishing is rarely caused by a single action of a single actor. Rather, it is typically influenced by multiple behaviors by multiple actors across a supply chain. Similarly, a single intervention will rarely result in a more sustainable fishery. Rather, a portfolio of interventions is necessary to trigger desired changes. Because fisheries are complex systems, it is challenging to identify interventions with the greatest leverage to positively impact fishing sustainability. We are using a suite of tools from system dynamics and network modeling to explore the potential for change in five small-scale fisheries in the Humboldt Current Ecosystem (i.e., anchovy, brachyuran crabs, jumbo flying squid, octopus, and southern hake). Our goal is to provide insights into three important questions: 1) What are the main elements or drivers of the system? 2) What elements hold the most potential for change? and 3) What are the most strategic ways to intervene within a system to promote intended consequences and avoid unintended consequences? In collaboration with ARTIS, we are using production and trade data to help us understand important dynamics of international and national markets for the focal fisheries. This includes exploring changes in product value through the supply chain and signals of potential of illegal, underreported, or unregulated activity. Preliminary results suggest there is heterogeneity across the five fisheries with respect to the presence of discrepancies between ARTIS export estimates and production reported by the government. For some fisheries, unknown sources may be playing a significant role in annual exports during certain years. With a series of additional analyses, we are trying to better understand the factors that are the most important contributors to the unknown seafood sources identified (e.g., unreported production, overreported exports, errors in live weigh conversion factors). Analyses of ARTIS data, combined with other analyses, is proving useful in designing intervention strategies to maximize sustainability improvements in our focal fisheries.
Assessing the impact of trade flows and fisheries subsidies on micronutrient distribution from Indian Ocean fisheries
This research aims to address two key questions: How are micronutrients obtained from Indian Ocean fish catches distributed among countries through trade, and what role do fisheries subsidies play in this context? By utilizing global seafood trade data, this study evaluates the flow and distribution of micronutrients derived from Indian Ocean fisheries. It quantifies the amount of each micronutrient retained and exported by Indian Ocean countries and compares this with the nutritional vulnerability of the population that consumes it. Furthermore, the research delves into the relationships between the amount of fisheries subsidies (i.e., government payments to their fishing fleets) and the quantity and type of micronutrients landed, retained, and exported by each country.
Early stage projects
This section includes a list of projects which are either underway but without an abstract written or a proposal is under evaluation by a funder.
- Trade changes related to Russia sanctions
- Drivers of exported environmental pressures of foods
- Aquatic species traded in fishmeal
- Transport-related emissions associated with aquatic food trade
- Analysis of tuna supply chains
- Hotspots of seafood processing
- IUU risk in traded products
- Direct and spillover effects associated with import regulations and certification schemes
- Prioritizing improvements in HS codes
- Distant impacts of shocks in aquatic food trade networks
