2025 Marked the Start of Our Second Decade

For more than ten years, Ocean Outcomes has been working alongside fisheries, communities, and supply chain partners to transform fisheries towards more sustainable practices through strategies grounded in real-world experience.

Much of this progress was reflected in our 10-Year Impact Report. From improving transparency in distant-water tuna fleets to supporting community-led approaches in small-scale fisheries, our work reinforces a consistent lesson: durable change comes from long-term presence, trusted partnerships, and practical solutions designed to work where fishing happens.

As we look ahead both to 2026 and the next decade, we’re carrying those lessons forward. We are focused on scaling what works, deepening regional leadership, and continuing to invest in the places where meaningful progress is both needed and possible.

“Fisheries change takes a long time. It takes capacity, it takes people, it takes organizations—it takes a movement.” — Kelly Harrell, Executive Director, Ocean Outcomes

Insights Shaped On the Water: What We Advanced in 2025

Putting Social Responsibility Into Practice

Migrant workers aboard a Taiwanese longline tuna fishing vessel engage in a training session using materials developed by Ocean Outcomes and One-Forty. Photo credit One-Forty.

Our teams have been spending a lot of time with crews, captains, vessel owners, and processors to better understand working conditions and identify realistic paths for improving those conditions. Through social risk assessments, human rights due diligence processes, and worker-centered training programs, we helped translate ambition into vessel-level action.

Direct engagement with crews onboard tuna vessels in Korea and through language and rights training for migrant workers in Taiwan showed that progress requires listening first. When workers are engaged directly and respectfully, solutions are more credible, more durable, and better positioned to improve conditions at sea.

Expanding Use of Technology for Greater Affect

Wi-Fi for crews at sea is a critical unlock, enabling crews to speak with family and friends, access grievance mechanisms, and check payments. This connectivity transforms isolation into connection, providing a vital link to the outside world that can help reduce some of the labor risks the distant-water fishing industry faces.

We continue to advance electronic monitoring (EM) initiatives in distant water tuna fisheries. In Northeast Asian tuna fleets, we are expanding the uptake of EM to help strengthen fisheries management and increase transparency.

Through the Monitoring for Change pilot, we paired EM with onboard Wi-Fi to demonstrate that EM can be used to advance social responsibility goals by monitoring labor indicators, supporting dispute resolution, and reducing isolation for crews spending months at sea.

This work is grounded in real-world operating conditions — tested on board active vessels, adapted to the realities of fishing operations, and refined through close collaboration with crews, companies, and governments. This work reaffirms why O2’s on-the-water presence matters. Whether coordinating installation of new technologies, conducting interviews, or supporting training in port, local leadership and capacity allows solutions to be applied in real- world contexts.

Community-Led Solutions in Small-Scale Fisheries

An estimated 120 million people work in small-scale fisheries — half are women. Small-scale fisheries play an increasingly vital role in ensuring food security and coastal community well-being around the world.

O2’s community-focused work continues to show what is possible when solutions are shaped locally. Through community-based Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) in small-scale fisheries, particularly in Latin America, fishing communities helped define priorities, test improvements, and strengthen livelihoods and produce environmental outcomes.

This work reinforces that sustainability is not one-size-fits-all. It is built through collaboration, cultural understanding, and long-term commitment to the people most closely connected to the resource. No single tool or approach is enough. Progress happens when social responsibility, technology, policy engagement, environmental initiatives and community leadership are woven together into a broader system that supports accountability and resilience.

Looking Forward to the Next Decade

Change in fisheries is rarely immediate, but it is possible. Through perseverance, listening to the people involved, and adapting best practice to real world conditions, Ocean Outcomes continues to advance fisheries towards environmentally sustainability, social responsibility, and resiliency for the long term.

Our “Next Decade” video captures the work ahead: scale what works, remain invested in place-based initiatives, leverage new technologies, and keep people at the center of fisheries sustainability.

“I’m excited that technologies are good enough now, and accessible enough now, that we can trace seafood from point of consumption all the way to point of production, and that groups can work together on sustainability initiatives that benefit the entire ecosystem.” — Perry Broderick, Communications & Systems Director and Founding Member, Ocean Outcomes

What This Means for Ocean Outcomes in 2026

As we move into 2026, we’re investing in the areas where our field experience, leadership and impact are strongest. Specifically, this includes deepening our work and capacity in East Asia, continuing to provide technical services for those seeking to advance sustainable seafood and fisheries goals, expanding our electronic monitoring and social responsibility initiatives, and supporting local capacity and partnerships for both large and small-scale fisheries work.

Early 2026 Priorities

Scaling Electronic Monitoring

We will work collaboratively to expand electronic monitoring across longline tuna fleets in Taiwan and South Korea, pairing new deployments with national-level policy engagement.

We are also contributing to and helping to convene cross-regional electronic monitoring working groups in East Asia. These forums create space for industry, policymakers, NGOs, and global partners to share lessons from the field, align approaches, and accelerate adoption of EM across the region.

Expanding Wi-Fi for Social Benefit

Building on field-tested insights from Monitoring for Change, O2 will support expanded Wi-Fi access on distant-water vessels, with a focus on social benefit. Through the second phase of the Monitoring for Change work, additional vessels will be equipped with systems aligned with international best practices, helping crews stay connected, access grievance channels, and reduce isolation.

Growing Fleet Engagement

O2 will broaden our direct engagement with tuna fleets, partnering with additional Taiwanese longline vessels and Korean distant-water vessels, responding to increasing demand for practical, on-the-water support from these vessels and their companies.

Partnerships to Expand the Sustainable Seafood Movement Across East Asia

In the coming year, we are expanding partnerships with key organizations including Seafood Legacy, Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, and the Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition to grow the sustainable seafood movement across East Asia. Stay tuned for more exciting news soon to come on this initiative!

We will also continue collaborating with Qingdao Marine Conservation Society to advance fisheries work across mainland China. This includes initiatives such as those in China’s Bohai Bay and Yellow Seas, which are improving small-scale fisheries and conservation outcomes along the Chinese coastline.

See You in 2026?

Our team of creative problem solvers spans the globe and our partnership approach to our work means our teams are active at many of the leading regional and global conferences, events and meetings related to sustainable seafood, fisheries management and ocean conservation. Here are some of the places where you can find us in 2026!