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Courtesy of UndercurrentNews.com:

Seafood Watch’s standards criteria update process is getting a makeover this year as the organization works to come into compliance with global sustainability certifications accreditor Iseal Alliance’s standard setting code of conduct.

The standards update, which includes separate criteria for wild fisheries and aquaculture, includes for the first time a formal, multi-stakeholder input process.

“To this date, we’ve had input from industry advisory sources, but we’ve never had a true multi-stakeholder process,” Santi Roberts, science manager for the program, told Undercurrent News, during the Monterey Bay Aquarium conference in Monterey, California.

This multi-stakeholder engagement process, now in process for a year and set for completion with the new standards by year end, is the same process the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) engage in for their certifications, but the goal is not to compete with these certification schemes or to become a certifier, Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, told Undercurrent.

“It’s another layer of credibility,” Packard explained. This is not a step towards becoming a certifier or an attempt to compete with the MSC or ASC as a certifier, she added.

Sam Wilding, senior fisheries scientist, told Undercurrent the accreditation enables Seafood Watch to respond to criticism it has received in the past and also to improve its process.

“We don’t want to only surround ourselves with environmental concerns and not know industry’s perspective,” Wilding said.

The Iseal requirement is for standards setting code of good practice is to to engage in a multi-stakeholder process. Seafood Watch plans to include — like the MSC and ASC — NGO’s, industry and scientists.

Seafood Watch is only going after one of four ISEAL codes of conduct required for membership, instead of all four, which the MSC and ASC have. The organization has plenty else on its plate now, as it beefs up the hatchery portion of the standards, which were limited in specificity before, said Roberts.

Major questions Seafood Watch is now considering include “Are hatchery fish going to outcompete wild salmon?” Wilding said.

The expert working group on the standards on fisheries with hatchery fish will meet in three weeks.

Wilding notes that multiple stakeholders will be key to informing the hatchery update.