Challenges We Aim To Address
The certification and ratings landscape can seem confusing and seafood business and governments need help understanding the value of these tools and how they complement each other. Fisheries and aquaculture producers – particularly in the developing world – need more support to move along the path toward environmental sustainability and social responsibility. And the sustainable seafood movement as a whole needs a shared understanding of the global seafood landscape – its status and trends, what’s working and what’s not, and where the gaps are – in order to accelerate our collective impact.
Our Purpose
The purposes of the Seafood Certification & Ratings Collaboration are to:
- Analyze the global landscape of sustainable seafood to monitor progress and identify priorities for improving environmental and social responsibility. This includes continuously improving the Sustainable Seafood Data Tool and using its data to develop collective calls for action on priority species and issues.
- Advocate for seafood producers and buyers, donors, and governments to drive improvement on priority species and issues. This includes our work on tropical surimi and our efforts to ensure that the data tool is a trusted source of information for global donors and policymakers.
- Coordinate and communicate about our complementary tools and systems to advance the assessment and improvement of fishery and aquaculture performance. Over the last six years, our standards and systems have become more aligned and efficient. There will be always be important differences between our programs and we aim to communicate clearly about the reasons behind those differences.
Our Vision
Around the world, seafood production supports an estimated 600 million livelihoods and provides essential nutrition for more than 3 billion people. When fishing and aquaculture are done sustainably and the rights of seafood workers, small-scale fishers, and smallholder farmers are respected, land and ocean ecosystems and the people that depend on them for food and livelihoods can thrive.
Through our work:
- Fisheries and aquaculture move along a clear and measurable path delivering continuous improvement toward environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
- All businesses that buy and sell seafood and consumers make decisions based on clear information and are supporting fisheries and aquaculture operations to improve.
- Policymakers, donors, an investors make better-informed decisions about funding and managing fisheries and aquaculture production.
Our Team
The Certification and Ratings Collaboration is composed of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Fair Trade USA, Marine Stewardship Council, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. Staff within each member organization contribute to the work of the Collaboration and each member is represented by one Steering Committee member.
- The Collaboration is coordinated by Project Manager, Liane Arness (previously, Veitch).
- Prior to joining the Certification and Ratings Collaboration in March 2022, Liane worked for a Canadian sustainable seafood group, SeaChoice, first as their Seafood Supply Chain Analyst and then as their National Manager. Before that, Liane worked for European environmental law organization ClientEarth on European fisheries policy, at the Zoological Society of London on marine policy, and on the Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. Liane has a MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Biology from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.
- Liane is on parental leave until fall 2025. Margaret Gilroy will be Project Manager for the Collaboration during this period.