sustainability

 

What Is Sustainable Fishing? Sustainable Seafood?

Sustainable fishing protects from the possibility of over-fishing. When done correctly, it ensures that the species being fished can continue to grow at a rate that keeps the eco-system in balance.

With this, we get sustainable seafood, whether wild-caught or farm-raised, the idea is for there to be a minimal environmental impact. With these sustainable fisheries and aquaculture farms, we are guaranteeing a future for our industry as well as keeping our oceans and environment safe.

A large percentage of the world's wild fish population is considered either fully fished or over-fished. This places more importance on harvesting, sourcing, selling, and marketing certified sustainable seafood. The demand from consumers for sustainable seafood is growing exponentially each year. Our society is more conscious of what is going on in our oceans than ever before; more than 80% of seafood consumers believe it is important for seafood to be protected for the following generations. These consumers want to be ensured that they are making responsible decisions when it comes to their seafood choices, and it starts here. 

Seafood Sourcing Certified Sustainable 

Seafood Sourcing (SSO) and your eco-labeled branded certified sustainable seafood strives to motivate seafood producers and fisheries to act more responsibly.

Our certified sustainable seafood eco-label make it easier for consumers to differentiate between the vast options in the market and helps them pick the best seafood available to them.

By offering certified sustainable seafood that is labeled with our eco-label you are helping ensure both, a healthy marine eco-system and a productive fishing industry. 

What Do Eco-Labels Consist Of? 

Eco-labels are authorized products that are considered to have fewer effects on the environment than other products on the market. 

These eco-labels use a comprehensive rubric to analyze and evaluate a collection of data and how it impacts the environment. Wild fisheries evaluations often inspect how abundant a species is. They also factor in how and where it is caught, and if the fishing gear harms other marine life or the marine eco-system.

Aquaculture (also known as aqua farming,) produce seafood that has been raised in farms that are located on land, in rivers and at sea. Certified farm-raised seafood also factor in what these species are being fed, if antibiotics are being used, and the impact these farms have on the environment that surrounds them. 

What Makes Us Different / How We Operate:

After many years of trying to understand the very complicated and profit-driven systems that are currently in place, we created www.SeafoodSourcing.org (SSO). Here, at Seafood Sourcing, the process has been simplified making it easy to promote your willingness to do business sustainably.

Once you choose to become sustainable with Seafood Sourcing, the benefits we offer are all-inclusive. Joining includes all our brand benefits and eco-label use with a simple low-cost annual fee. Our annual fee structure is simple and has no hidden costs and no royalties due on product sold.

Our eco-label is there for you to use to showcase your sustainability efforts and let consumers know that they are making a smarter, healthier choice for themselves, as well as the environment.

When you join and use our eco-label on your branded products you will receive benefits never before available. Your branded products that display our eco-label can now be marketed as sustainable and you will be granted the use of our trademarks to help promote your brand (Trademark usage agreement required). What makes this different from other organizations is that your customers and their customers can now also use these trademarks to promote their sustainability with the purchase of your product (Trademark usage agreement required). A simple registration process allows them to promote that they are using (restaurant level) or selling (distributor and retail level) Seafood Sourcing certified sustainable products free of charge.

Once a member, your use of our eco-label on your branded products do not require the fishery, vessel, or processing plant to become a member. Unlike other organizations, anyone in the chain of custody leading to you is not required to be a member unless they are using our eco-label for products or a brand that is not owned by your company.

Membership Benefits: 

• No need for a continual chain of custody proof
• Simple usage reporting on products to be sold
• Low annual fee with no royalties to pay
• All certifications based on GO’s and true scientific data
• We don't create our own data for our certification like other NGO’s as this creates a true conflict of interest

Certification Process: 

Unlike other NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations) who create their own data to determine what can be considered sustainable, we rely only on outside sources to avoid a true conflict of interest. We only list species and fisheries that have true scientific data to back up our claim that a species or fishery is operating in a sustainable manner.

Most fisheries in the world are monitored by GO’s (Governmental Organizations) with very strict quota systems, landing data requirements, current stock levels, fishing seasons, and even closing of a fishery when quotas are met. We use this detailed scientific data and the recommendations of these GO’s to create a certification list that is without question in the best interest of the species.

Our certifications are reviewed on a monthly basis using real-time catch data. Anytime a species or fishery becomes at risk our team immediately post notices to both the public and our members. We believe this real-time monitoring is the best way to assure a fishery is being continually kept accountable. In evaluating the current standards, we see that other NGO’s are self-certifying species and fisheries with their own data for an extended period of time (up to five years). We don’t believe these standards are in the best interest of anyone except these NGO’s.