© ALI
The 2025 edition analyses current welfare requirements within the primary farming standards of nine global seafood certification schemes and two international ratings agencies. Collectively, these bodies oversee a substantial share of global farmed fish and shrimp production. Through sustained research and direct engagement with certifiers and rating agencies, the benchmark shapes how retailers, investors and regulators define truly responsible seafood.
The Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark remains the world’s only evidence-based tool designed to evaluate how strongly aquatic animal welfare is embedded within aquaculture certification and rating frameworks. The benchmark is part of ALI’s ongoing work to help encourage progressive development related to animal welfare standards in aquaculture, and will be used as a tool by decision-makers worldwide as they make informed choices about sourcing from the certifiers that lead in aquatic animal welfare.
Seafood certification schemes and ratings agencies act as de facto regulators in a largely unregulated global industry. Through transparent, comparative ranking, the benchmark motivates certifiers to elevate their standards. The feedback period plays a crucial role in this process, offering certifiers detailed, evidence-based guidance on how to address identified gaps, turning evaluation into collaboration and competition into tangible welfare progress.
How schemes are evaluated
The certification schemes are evaluated on water quality, stocking density and space requirements, environmental enrichment, feed composition, stunning and slaughter, and transport, which was added this year to recognise its critical role in animal welfare outcomes. In addition, the schemes and agencies are evaluated for their inclusion of prohibitions on octopus farming, use of insects in aquafeed, certification of shrimp from eyestalk-ablated broodstock; and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for faster growth (new in 2025).
Based on assessment areas detailed above, Certified Humane achieved the highest score in the 2025 Benchmark with 8.75 out of 10 points, demonstrating strong and comprehensive welfare provisions across all main criteria. Certified Humane is now the only seafood certification scheme to achieve full points in the “Core Prohibitions” criteria of ALI’s Benchmark, marking a new model for comprehensiveness in aquatic animal welfare standards. They also became the second certifier globally to prohibit the use of insects in aquafeed, signaling growing alignment with true sustainability principles in the industry. The ASC and RSPCA tied for second place at 7.75/10, reflecting continued advancement. View the full assessment here.
“Certified Humane was founded to improve the lives of farm animals raised for food in response to a growing market demand for responsible production. The launch of our Atlantic Salmon standards in 2024 represented a significant milestone in expanding our work into aquatic species. We are honored by the benchmark's ranking, assessment and recognition of our scientifically-based standards,” said Dr Rosangela Poletto, part of the scientific committee at Certified Humane, in a press release.
“As our understanding of aquatic animal welfare becomes increasingly sophisticated, and despite the knowledge gaps that remain, we now have a clearer picture than ever of what these animals need not only to survive but to truly experience positive states,” said Steffan Edward, certification specialist at ALI. “By grounding the Benchmark in this advancing science, we are able to evaluate whether certification schemes are translating knowledge into meaningful practice, creating standards that honor the lives of the species they oversee.”
