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We prepare rigorous economic and environmental planning on critical matters of food and people at sea.

Founded in 2012 and based in Honolulu, the Sustainability Incubator is a trusted and independent source of forward-shifting work for land and water use decisions. It’s reflected in the decisions and actions taken by our recent clients: ASEAN, US seafood industry, governments of Indonesia, the Philippines and Fiji, Freedom Fund and Humanity United, IOM, FAO, GLOBEFISH and the Hawaii Seafood Council.

We believe that land and water use decisions form the backbone of a society and need strong backing in stewardship, collaboration and unity, which is our purpose.

Recent work building respect for ocean food & people at sea

Fishery Improvement Projects

Since its founding in 2012, the Sustainability Incubator has been the industry leader in Fishery Improvement Projects, where seafood suppliers invest in fisheries sustainability as a ‘voluntary’ condition of sale to US and European supermarkets. The Sustainability Incubator was part of the original design process and rollout of these projects in 2012 as an experimental sales access agreement. We have supported fishing companies to implement 35 sustainability projects worldwide since for crab, tuna, swordfish, scallops, snappers and other fisheries.

Improvements in scientific management of fisheries are paid for directly by the industry with oversight provided by a coalition of environmental groups. Currently the Sustainability Incubator hosts swordfish projects in the Pacific and Indian Oceans for Sprouts Farmers Markets, SYM PAC International, Fong Hsiang Enterprises and participating vessels.

Recent work shifting ocean policy regionally

In late 2024 and 2025, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) released Guidelines on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers and completed a major review of its 11 members’ fishing law and policy concerning labor at sea. We helped edit the guidelines and did the engagement, research and writing for the review. Together with representatives of labor, OSH and fishing in each country we set out a practical pathway to adapt.

Looking Closer at Supermarket Shrimp & Tuna — Post-Pandemic

How are shrimp and tuna being made today – as the two seafoods we eat most? In 2023 and 2024, we looked at the whole picture and its smallest details to understand who is winning and losing after producer prices went into free-fall in mid-2022. We looked because supermarket prices were skyrocketing inexplicably and the seafood press was reporting 40% profit margins up from 9% pre-pandemic. What explained the large and growing price gap, when demand had recovered and the rules of supply/demand economics say producer prices should rise?

Supermarket Shrimp: Results & Press

To understand the picture for shrimp, we collected prices, costs, earnings and interviews from over 500 shrimp producers and workers across Asia by partnering with Viet Nam, Indonesia and India organizations and tracked shrimp imports.

When More Means LessDownload
Laboring for lessDownload

This report initiated a dialogue with the government of Viet Nam that led to the addition of new information provided by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). The report was updated on September 12, 2024.

Questions about this report? Please contact us at Info@Sustainability-Incubator.com.

Supermarket Tuna: Results & Press

To understand the picture for tuna, we collected over 3500 tuna vessel names and vessel owner names and looked at what their ecolabel, the Marine Stewardship Council certification program said about their tuna versus the information available and actually shared with the ecolabel. We focused in on what the ecolabel said about fishing labour to learn its empirical basis because all major supermarkets repeat what they say about the tuna they sell (and we eat).

Is tuna ecolabeling causing fishers more harm than good?

Published by Nature Ocean Sustainability

The article, database and supplementary notes (footnotes) can be found here (also here). Additionally you may find correspondence with the certifiers and data files here.

Questions about this report? Please contact us at Info@Sustainability-Incubator.com.

Co-Design to Shift Policy

We engaged industry, government and civil society organizations in co-design in each of Thailand’s and Indonesia’s fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors to learn production and labor challenges firsthand. Together we prepared and piloted Seafood Business Enterprises training grounded in the industry reality and faithful to International Organization for Migration (IOM) requirements for Fair and Ethical Recruitment and Employment of Migrant Workers.

IOM-Training-Manual-for-Fishing-and-Seafood-Enterprises_Thailand-FinalDownload

IOM-Training-Manual-for-Fishing-and-Seafood-Enterprises-Indonesia-FinalDownloadWe

Forr the Federal Governments of Indonesia and the Philippines, we wrote Policy Briefs on Fishing Priorities in 2019/2020 that were taken up into federal mandates, enabling provincial and municipal authorities to co-design and implement a new referral system and coordination tree across labor, fisheries, Coast Guard, health and safety and the courts.

Next we engaged government and legal authorities at major port cities in Indonesia and the Philippines whose mandates touch fishing and fishing labor in a co-design process and prepared and piloted experiential curricula for detecting Forced Labour that Port and Fishing Inspectorates then took up in their official mandates.

SAFE-Seas-Training-Manual-for-Port-Inspectors_PhilippinesDownload

SAFE-Seas-Training-Manual-for-Port-Inspectors_IndonesiaDownload

We invested a year in research and engagement and authored the Social Responsibility Guidelines for the Fisheries and Aquaculture sectors for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization for reference and use worldwide.

We prepared supply chain traceability and risk profiles for Estimates of illegal and unreported fish in seafood imports to the USA and our work was cited by a US Presidential Task Force, NOAA, and federal court as strong evidence for a policy shift, which led to new policies and programs in US defense security, imports surveillance, and ocean protection.

We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at the.sustainability.incubator@gmail.com. Mahalo.