Contributor: Adeline Caffin, Tilkal
As SEA2SEE enters the final months of the project, the initiative continues to strengthen its role as a pioneering effort for seafood traceability and transparency in Europe. Bringing together technological innovation, operational field testing, and multi-stakeholder collaboration, SEA2SEE is helping shape the future of digital traceability across fisheries and aquaculture value chains.
Over the past months, the project has reached an important stage of maturity. Five real-world demonstration case studies — spanning aquaculture sites in Greece, Spain and Portugal, as well as small-scale fisheries in the Algarve — have enabled partners to validate and refine SEA2SEE technologies under operational conditions. These pilots are essential to ensure that the solutions developed are not only technologically robust, but also practical, scalable and adapted to the realities of the seafood sector.
At the same time, SEA2SEE’s technological ecosystem has now reached a stable and fully integrated stage. Combining blockchain-enabled traceability, interoperable data management tools, and both professional and consumer-facing applications, the platform is designed to support transparency at every stage of the value chain — from catch or harvest to final consumer.
This work is taking place in a rapidly evolving context where digital traceability is becoming both a market expectation and a regulatory necessity. With the European Fisheries Regulation and related digital compliance frameworks progressively coming into force, seafood stakeholders increasingly require reliable systems capable of ensuring data integrity, auditability, and end-to-end product visibility.
Against this backdrop, SEA2SEE is now focusing on the final optimisation and consolidation of its traceability backbone to ensure that the platform can effectively support operational needs, regulatory alignment, and long-term adoption across the seafood industry.
Below are some of the latest developments achieved within the project.
Improved data collection tools
Reliable traceability starts with reliable data collection. To ensure accurate, standardised, and accessible information capture across all stakeholders, SEA2SEE recently deployed version 2.1.10 of its data collection application — a major update focused on strengthening digitisation, operational efficiency, and user experience in the field.
Among the key enhancements:
- Complete multilingual support across all use cases, making the platform more accessible to international stakeholders and facilitating wider adoption.
- Simplified date management through a more intuitive interface, enabling faster and more accurate data entry while reducing the risk of errors.
- Bug fixes and ergonomic improvements, ensuring a smoother, more stable and user-friendly experience across operational scenarios.
Together, these improvements contribute directly to higher-quality data collection and more efficient traceability workflows throughout seafood value chains.
Spotlight application enhancements
Transparency does not stop at supply chain operators — it must also reach consumers. The SEA2SEE Spotlight applications were designed as Digital Product Passports, enabling end users to access trusted information about seafood products, their origins, and their sustainability characteristics.
As Digital Product Passports become an increasingly important component of European sustainability and traceability frameworks, SEA2SEE positions itself as a pioneering initiative within the seafood industry by bringing this level of transparency directly to consumers.
To further strengthen accessibility, transparency, and user engagement, several new developments have been introduced across the Spotlight applications.
Key updates include:
- Optimised map visualisation, allowing fishing zones to be displayed directly on interactive maps so consumers can instantly identify the geographical origin of seafood products.
- Educational content on fishing techniques, with explanatory information now associated with each fishing event to highlight environmental impacts and sustainability considerations.
- Expanded access to the recipe book, now available across all Spotlight applications to further engage consumers around seafood products and sustainable practices.
These developments help transform traceability data into meaningful and accessible information, reinforcing consumer trust while promoting greater awareness around sustainable seafood practices.
New CSR forms for aquaculture and fisheries
Sustainability expectations across the seafood sector continue to grow, requiring companies to better structure, monitor, and communicate their environmental and social commitments. To support this transition, SEA2SEE has developed new CSR forms specifically dedicated to aquaculture and fisheries stakeholders.
These tools are designed to facilitate the collection and centralisation of sustainability-related information while simplifying long-term CSR monitoring and reporting processes.
The new forms enable companies to:
- optimise the collection of information related to operational standards and company profiles,
- simplify annual monitoring of CSR commitments,
- structure and centralise sustainability-related data.
Over time, this information will support companies in demonstrating their commitments, improving transparency, and highlighting best practices in sustainable development throughout the seafood sector.
Redesign of the importer form
Importers play a critical role in ensuring traceability continuity across international seafood supply chains. To better address both operational realities and evolving regulatory requirements, SEA2SEE has redesigned the form dedicated to the importer use case.
The objective of this redesign is to simplify data capture while ensuring that imported seafood products remain fully traceable throughout their journey from capture to market placement.
The updated form will support stakeholders by enabling them to:
- capture essential fishing and import activity data through workflows adapted to business needs,
- ensure complete product traceability from catch to market placement,
- strengthen regulatory compliance by aligning collected data with CATCH system requirements and evolving European regulations, including the EU Fisheries Regulation.
Beyond improving auditability, transparency, and data-driven sustainability, the solutions developed within SEA2SEE provide concrete tools to help stakeholders anticipate and respond to the growing digitalisation of regulatory compliance. By strengthening visibility, data reliability, and interoperability across seafood value chains, the platform supports organisations in preparing for future obligations while ensuring that innovation remains driven by long-term sector transformation and sustainability objectives.
With less than a month remaining before the project’s conclusion in June 2026, SEA2SEE is now concentrating on final stabilisation, consolidation and long-term adoption to ensure that the solutions developed continue delivering tangible impact well beyond the project lifecycle.