Pilot Assessments of Farmed Salmon, Oysters, Mussels under Aquaculture Stewardship Council Standards

The veteran third party certifier, among the first accredited certification bodies for the ASC, conducted pilot audits of an abalone (Great Southern Waters) farm in Australia and other aquaculture operations.

The pilot audits were a test run of ASC's finalised standards, which were developed via an international, multi-stakeholder process involving some 2,000 experts from around the world over a period of 8 years. The standards were developed with support from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

"We are pleased to contribute to the ASC development by conducting these pilot audits," said Dr Sabine Daume, Manager of SCS' Sustainable Seafood programme. "As with other environmental certification schemes of this magnitude, a commitment to ongoing development and improvement of the standards is crucial."

"Great Southern Waters was keen to be tested against new international performance standards on its Australian abalone farm and be a part of the final ASC review," said Anton Krsinich, CEO of GSW. "Our customers are looking for best practices and the ASC standard is a check that we are doing the best job that we can on the farm."

The pilot test focused on environmental and social best practices, human resources, occupational health & safety, and protecting biodiversity. Once the ASC Abalone standard is finalized, GSW will undertake the full assessment, which will be conducted by SCS. SCS auditors and the producers have presented valuable feedback to the ASC that on the standards and certification manuals.

"Our extensive experience in certifying sustainable seafood, including certification under the Marine Stewardship Council standards for wild-capture fisheries, makes SCS well qualified to conduct these pilot audits," said Dr Robert J. Hrubes, Executive Vice President of SCS. "We look forward to recognising additional responsible aquaculture operations."