Aquaculture Stewardship Council

For other uses, see Stewardship council.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is an independent non-profit organisation and labelling organization that establishes protocol on farmed seafood while ensuring sustainable aquaculture. The ASC provides producers with a certification of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council was founded in 2010 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) [1] [2] to manage and implement socially responsible aquaculture.[3]

Personnel

The current ASC CEO is Chris Ninnes.[4] In February 2016, Aldin Hilbrands, Meghan Jeans, Scott Nichols, and Ling Cao joined the ASC Supervisory Board.[5]

Accreditation process

The ASC has standards for the 12 following species: abalone, bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters and scallops), freshwater trout, pangasius, salmon, seriola and cobia, shrimp, and tilapia.[6]

Several pre-competitive organizations are now using the rigorous ASC standards as a means to progress their industry towards more environmental sustainability and social responsibility: such as the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI, established in 2013); and the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership (SSP, launched in March 2018[7]) which operates in Ecuador.[8] The GSI member companies (representing over 50% of the world's global farmed salmon production) have pledged to have all their salmon farms ASC-certified by 2020.[9][improper synthesis?]

Certification

In 2010, the ASC appointed the Accreditation Services International (ASI) to accredit and oversee certifiers of aquaculture businesses.[2]

The ASC certifies different species groups which includes Tilapia, Salmon, Pangasius, Bivalves, Cobia and Shrimp. In November 2017, a Seaweed Standard was also launched by the ASC together with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Certified ASC products are now available around the world in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[10]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Gardiner, Beth (27 October 2010). "Finding a Sustainable Way to Farm the Seas". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Aquaculture Stewardship Council appoints independent accreditation agency". wwf.panda.org. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  3. ^ "Aquaculture Stewardship Council appoints independent accreditation agency". wwf.panda.org. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  4. ^ "Chris Ninnes".
  5. ^ "ASC Appoints Four New Members to Supervisory Board".
  6. ^ "Farm standards".
  7. ^ "Home". Sustainable Shrimp Partnership. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  8. ^ White, Cliff. "With an eye on India, Ecuador launches Sustainable Shrimp Partnership". Seafood Source. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  9. ^ "ASC certification". Global Salmon Initiative. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  10. ^ Aquaculture Stewardship Council. "Certification Update: April 2018". Retrieved 15 December 2021.