December 18, 2020

Friend of the Sea revises certification standards and audit guidance

Milan, Italy-based Friend of the Sea (FoS) is revising its Sustainable Aquaculture and Fish Welfare certification standards and audit guidance, with the process opened for public consultation early this month.

Stakeholders and interested parties are invited to provide their feedback until February 1, 2021.

FoS advised its stakeholders of its terms of reference for information about the scope and objectives of the revision process, guidance on making comments and suggestions, timelines and the decision-making process.

"To achieve sustainability in aquaculture, we need to hear from everyone who has something useful to add," FoS executive director Paolo Bray said. "Our revision process begins with an open-ended submission period, where we welcome ideas and documents from all relevant stakeholders."

FoS standards are revisited and updated on a regular basis as part of the organisation's alignment process. With the revision, FoS seeks to address the negative effects of aquaculture on the marine environment and include criteria on fish welfare.

Some of the changes included in the revision are the 24 brand-new species-specific Fish Welfare Standards and their related audit guidance, and the creation of FoS-Aqua Inland-Marine Standard Version 4 which merges the FoS-Aqua Inland and the FoS-Aqua Marine standards into one unique standard.

FoS said these updates will improve the consistency of auditing the management of aquaculture systems and tightening up on certain areas concerning the location of sites, infrastructure, the origin of eggs or smolts, feeding, use of genetically modified organism (GMO) products and growth hormones, disease prevention and application of veterinary drugs and chemicals, management of water and waste waters, hazardous substances, energy management, social accountability, legal compliance, risk assessment and overall waste management.

FoS will review all feedback and aggregate comments into a draft for proposed new standards before an internal vote.

FoS said that a summary of the process, including comments, will be available to the public once the revision process is complete, to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.

 - SeafoodSource