Emma Desrochers

Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) has released its first progress report since its launch in 2016, detailing its efforts to improve the sustainability of the seafood industry.

SeaBOS is a collaboration of 10 of the world’s largest seafood companies across the wild capture, aquaculture, and aquafeed production sectors.

The companies involved in SeaBOS are Maruha Nichiro, Nissui, Thai Union, Mowi, Dongwon Industries,

Five founding members of TUNACONS have achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for yellowfin tuna products caught in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Ecuadorian companies involved in the initiative are Negocios Industriales Real NIRSA S.A., Servigrup, and Eurofish, along with Panamanian firm Pesquera Jadran and U.S.-based Tri Marine. The certification covers 47 vessels between the companies and is the first certification for

The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has published an update of the Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS).

The RFVS is part of GSA’s Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification program, which uses third-party certification to link responsible wild fisheries to certified vessels and processing plants.

The new RFVS Issue 2.0 replaces the previous Issue 1.1 in order to incorporate lessons learned and feedback by industry partners,

Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) and the WWF have raised joint concerns about ongoing legal and human rights challenges through a joint letter to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

The two groups said they aim to ensure there is specific language protecting human and labor rights in the regional fishery management organization's fisheries conservation and management measures (CMMs).

CMMs are binding decisions about

The deadline to implement the GlobalG.A.P. chain of custody (CoC) standard throughout supply chains is 31 December, 2023, as starting on 1 January, 2023, all parties that handle loose, unpacked products originating from GlobalG.A.P.-certified production processes must have a valid CoC certification in order to maintain the certification's validity through the sale of those products.

GlobalG.A.P.'s aquaculture certification

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is urging the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to protect bigeye and yelowfin stocks by ensuring all its commission members are fully implementing conservation measures. 

ISSF published a position statement ahead of the IATTC's upcoming annual meeting acknowledging the IATTC's tuna-conservation efforts while also pushing for it to follow through on its enacted

The Association of Large Freezer Tuna Vessels (Asociación de Grandes Atuneros Congeladores, AGAC) has achieved the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for its skipjack tuna in the Indian Ocean. There are 14 purse-seine vessels that compose the AGAC fleet in the Indian Ocean, in which the certification applies to all of those.

“Congratulations to AGAC for this achievement in the Indian Ocean, which is part of wider

The Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) has launched a publicly available benchmark tool to evaluate the aquatic animal welfare standards of global aquaculture certification schemes.

Until recently, individual animal welfare considerations have been excluded from global aquaculture certifications. The new aquaculture certification benchmark tool, according to ALI, analyzes current welfare requirements and highlights areas of opportunity for welfare

The Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) has released results for an assessment of government transparency on Mexico’s marine fisheries sector, finding over half the information is difficult access online – but that the government shows clear interest in relaying information. 

The assessment was conducted in collaboration with Causa Natura, a Mexican-based company focused on research to promote sustainable management of

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has released the first global sustainability reporting standard for all companies in the  production of crops, animals, and seafood for disclosure of shared economic, environmental, and social impacts.

GRI is an initiative organized by the Global Sustainability Standards Board, an independent, international organization that provides standards for sustainability reporting. The GRI standards are designed