Seafood Watch to Evaluate Eco-Labels

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, which publishes a well-known consumer seafood guide, will review various eco-labels this year.

Seafood Watch will spend the next nine months evaluating sustainable seafood certification schemes, including those of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), Global Good Aquaculture Practices (GlobalGAP) and Responsible Fisheries Management Certification (Global Trust) to determine if any or all are “credible — that is, adhere to a robust process — and equivalent to at least a Seafood Watch ‘Good Alternative’ yellow ranking or above,” said Pickerell.

“This will give us the opportunity to defer to these eco-certification schemes,” he said.  (More here)

I’ll be curious to see what they decide.  The merits of Global Trust are now being debated as major Alaska salmon processors have decided to drop the MSC label (see here and here).