Over 100 million residents of developing countries depend on fisheries for their livelihoods. As consumption of wild harvested and farm raised fish skyrockets globally, conformance to fisheries standards helps producers gain access to markets and preserve a precious resource for future generations.

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The world’s fisheries are a fundamental source of food, employment, recreation, trade, and livelihoods around the globe, with fish constituting one of the principal food exports from the developing world. Over the past decade fisheries have provided more than 2.6 billion people with at least 20 percent of their average animal protein intake; of the roughly 97 million tons of seafood consumed annually, approximately half of this is landed by small-scale and subsistence fisherfolk. With fish exports from developing countries consistently high on the list of globally traded agricultural commodities moving overwhelmingly from South to North, illustrates the opportunity for leveraging market standards for responsible practices in conservation, management and development of fisheries.

Fishery management has an undeniable potential to inflict severe negative impacts on target species and their ecosystems, and thus responsible management practices supported by the market are critical. As of 2002, 25 percent of commercial significant fisheries are over-exploited or depleted, with 47 percent being fished to capacity, while 25 are not fully exploited. Fisheries facing particular pressure tend to be high-demand species, including slow-growing species such as lobsters, cod, and swordfish, and located in relatively close proximity to major markets. With such widespread stress on marine and aquatic and ecosystems is tremendous, and the benefit that improving management of these resources – potentially allowing for increased take from under-harvested ecosystems, and preventing the decline of resources on which people depend – is clear.

At the same time that wild caught production is leveling off due to overfishing and depletion of stocks, aquaculture production is growing at an annual average rate of 8.8%, and overtaking wild caught seafood consumption.  Thus, the establishment of farmed fish standards has garnered increasing attention among standards organizations.

There are a variety of third party organizations that have established standards in the area of wild caught fish, and several that are vying for leadership in the area of aquaculture standards.  Each addresses very different sets of environmental issues, a wide variety of species each with their own particular issues, and address some or all levels of the value chain.  The leader in wild caught fisheries standards is the MSC , which certifies fisheries are sustainably caught, up to the point of landing on the boat.  MSC has certified the fisheries for 26 species including salmon, sardines, tuna, prawn, crab, hake, and dover sole.  Other organizations addressing wild caught fisheries are the World Wildlife Fund and the Environmental Defense Fund.  All focus on environmental issues and leverage consumer preferences for sustainably caught fish to generate compliance.

The leader in setting aquaculture standards is the Aquaculture Certification Council ( ACC ), which has established standards for environmental sustainability, social equity and food safety for shrimp, tilapia and catfish, and are working on developing standards for additional species. The ACC certifies producers, processors, hatcheries and feed producers, and trains and accredits auditors all around the world to inspect and certify facilities. The ACC was established by seafood buyers who pay a premium for seafood products from certified producers and processors. Product from ACC certified producers and processors represents the largest portion of US imports that have some kind of aquaculture certification.   ACC is currently partnering with Global GAP to harmonize aquaculture standards with the EU.  The Worldwide Fund for Nature is currently developing their own set of standards and the Environmental Defense Fund has developed standards for shrimp farming in collaboration with an American supermarket chain, Wegman’s.

In the area of aquarium fish, the Marine Aquarium Council has established the only standards for that industry, covering both practices (industry operators, facilities and collection areas) and products (aquarium organisms), including standards for environmental sustainability and social equity.

In conclusion, some of the primary standards related challenges facing the seafood industry are:

1. An unmanageably large number of different standards that are not harmonized, thus requiring producers and processors to meet a wide variety of standards, on top of regulations and the specific requirements and product specifications of individual buyers;
2. Competition for market acceptance of the standards and adoption by suppliers;
3. There is as yet no organic standard for seafood. The biggest obstacle in farmed fish is with feed; and 
4. Only one standards organization, ACC , addresses food safety.

Fisheries topic editor: Andrew J. Kaelin