What is Seafood Watch?
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program provides guidelines to the consumers and businesses to help them choose seafood products that were fished or farmed in an environmentally sustainable manner. Their guidelines will point you to which seafood items are of Best Choice, Good Alternatives, or which ones you should Avoid.
Seafood Watch has a pool of scientists which conduct data gathering of relevant science-based information by probing through different credible publications such as, government reports, journal articles and white papers. In addition to this, they also form partnerships with fishery and fish farm experts to capture suitable inputs and knowledge in the field. After a thorough review of all the available data and information, they apply their sustainability standards to those findings to develop an in-depth Seafood Watch assessment.
For more information about Seafood Watch, please visit their
official website at: http://www.seafoodwatch.org/
Partnerships
The USAID Oceans and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch launched a
partnership - gearing towards a shared goal of improving the traceability of
seafood products entering the North American market. This is to ensure that
these products are legally caught, processed, and distributed according to the highest standards of
environmental sustainability and labor standards. The partnership will also
support the development of electronic catch documentation and traceability, as
well as strengthen engagements in the industry, government, and NGO’s in
Southeast Asia.
To learn more about the USAID Oceans – Seafood Watch partnership,
visit: PRESS RELEASE: USAID Oceans Partners with Seafood Ratings Leader, Seafood Watch
visit: PRESS RELEASE: USAID Oceans Partners with Seafood Ratings Leader, Seafood Watch
Trainings
The SOCSKSARGEN Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., being
a local partner of USAID Oceans, was invited to attend the joint training on
Seafood Watch fishery standards, assessment methodology, as well as a workshop
on the recently launched Slavery Risk Tool, at the Greenleaf Hotel, General
Santos City, last February 8-9, 2018. The said training aimed to link the
Seafood Watch standards and additional human rights elements with the country’s
Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) and sustainable initiatives,
develop the capacity of key fishery managers and industry stakeholders to use
Seafood Watch standards and assessment tools, and to develop plans between the industry and government to meet the
generally accepted Seafood Watch standards.
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Sara McDonald, Seafood Watch
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On the first day of training, participants were broken down into
stakeholder groups: The Government, Processors, and Fishing. They were then asked to answer questions that will help guide Seafood Watch’s global work, as part of their monitoring and evaluation processes. Each group later summarized their
responses and reported their feedback to all the participants.
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Wendy Norden, Seafood Watch
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The
second day of training started with the presentation of scoring methodology for
the impact of a fishery on focal species. The participants then broke again
into small groups to perform short exercises where they will use the Seafood
Watch standards
to score the impact of a fishery on a particular species in different
situations, followed by presentation of the results by each group and a
discussion of the scoring, and then later proceeded with more presentations on
Management Effectiveness and the Impact of the Fishery on habitat and
Ecosystems.
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Sam Wilding, Seafood Watch
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The
joint training ended with discussions on future plans and further workshop
opportunities, and identifying potential collaborators to the program.
