Sustainable Fisheries Partnership: Biodiversity Grantee Spotlight (2026)

As a result of a consulting project in which an anonymous donor hired Giving Green to research promising strategies and funding opportunities to reduce biodiversity loss, Giving Green has recommended a donation to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) to support its bycatch mitigation work through the Bycatch Solutions Hub (BSH).
SFP is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization focused on reducing the environmental impact of the international fisheries and aquaculture sectors through global industry engagement. Within our strategy for reducing biodiversity loss, the Bycatch Solutions Hub work falls within our sub-strategy of supporting innovation and implementation of improved fishing gear. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information about our assessment of improved fishing gear as a solution to biodiversity loss.
Last updated: February 2026

What Is the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership?
Founded in 2006, SFP works to reduce the environmental impacts of fishing and aquaculture by engaging with the seafood and fishing industries. SFP collaborates with the seafood industry, governments, academics, and nonprofits to help find solutions for biodiversity, people, and the seafood industry. It offers tools and expertise on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. SFP’s work targets creating abundant fisheries, healthy ecosystems, and resilient fishing communities.
What Is Being Funded, and How Could It Help Address Biodiversity Loss?
We recommended that the donor support the SFP’s Bycatch Solutions Hub (BSH). Launched in 2023, the BSH is a platform that highlights solutions to reduce bycatch in commercial fisheries and supports projects to develop or test these solutions. Bycatch is the accidental catch of non-targeted species by fishing vessels. The BSH has a broad scope, including all major oceans, all main bycatch groups (i.e., cetaceans, sharks/rays, sea turtles, and seabirds), and multiple gear types.
As part of the Bycatch Solutions Hub, SFP works on matchmaking and arranging funding for bycatch reduction projects, providing a directory of bycatch solutions to the seafood industry, and increasing support for bycatch solutionsFP.
Based on our strategy report on reducing biodiversity loss, we think that advancing the development and adoption of bycatch reduction technologies is an important lever to improve marine biodiversity, as these solutions can be scaled up to many different geographies and are often proven to work at a small scale. Bycatch is one of three main environmental impacts of the fishing sector, along with seabed contact (from bottom trawling) and overfishing.
Why Do We Think the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Will Use This Funding Well?
We see a clear role for philanthropy to support bycatch mitigation technologies. Currently, there is little interest in fishing hardware from private and venture investors because the time to return on investment is long, the fishing sector has low profit margins, and the risk of failure is high. Therefore, we see the role of philanthropy in this space as creating an enabling environment for investments, thought leadership, and advocacy for government, policy, and industry support.
We think that SFP’s Bycatch Solutions Hub is well-positioned to advance the development and adoption of bycatch reduction technologies. The BSH has a proven track record in catalyzing financing for bycatch solution pilots from the seafood industry. Since 2024, the BSH has helped the seafood industry to fund roughly $1 million (USD) in bycatch solutions projects, while its overall 2024-2025 budget was roughly $310,000. This means that for each dollar donated to the BSH’s operations, it has generated about $3 in industry funding.
We are impressed by the strategy of the BSH. The BSH addresses the known barriers to large-scale adoption of bycatch solutions. Based on conversations we have had with experts in bycatch mitigation, we expect that a logical path to adopting bycatch solutions at scale is (1) pilot programs and bottom-up adoption by supportive fishers, (2) retailers rewarding early adopters or requiring adoption in their supply chains, and (3) governments mandating the use of bycatch solutions that are proven to work at scale. We think that SFP’s approach to increasing the number of bycatch reduction pilots and the support for bycatch mitigation from retailers is a sensible path forward for scaling bycatch solutions.
Giving Green believes that additional biodiversity donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our Top Biodiversity Nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to advise donations to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to our Top Biodiversity Nonprofits, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.
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