Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Ecolabelling of Seafood:
The Basic Concepts
Trevor J. Ward and Bruce Phillips
1.1
Introduction
Ecolabelling provides consumers with the opportunity to make informed choices
about the seafood they purchase, at the fresh fish bar, in supermarkets, cafes and
restaurants. This chapter introduces the concept of ecolabelling of seafood, and
discusses the basic elements of a successful seafood ecolabelling programme. The
concepts are introduced through a series of topics that provide the background and
expose some of the complexities and subtleties. Later chapters in the topic provide
more detail and perspectives from a broad range of the practitioners and scientists
involved with the many aspects of seafood ecolabelling. This chapter also provides
a selection of the various forms of seafood ecolabelling that currently appear in the
marketplace, as a resource for consumers, researchers and students to explore the
issues and questions in more detail.
An earlier topic -
Ecolabelling in Fisheries: What Is It All About?
- was published
in 2003 (Phillips
et al
. 2003), with two of the contributors here, B. Phillips and
T. Ward, as the editors. It included a detailed description of the Marine Stewardship
Council (MSC) process, case studies including Australia's Western Rock Lobster
Fishery, Alaska salmon fishery, the Thames Herring Drift-Net Fishery, New Zealand
hoki fishery, and a number of perspectives from those with experience of the process
of ecolabelling and the reactions to the ecolabelling concept of stakeholders in
fisheries worldwide. It also included perspectives from fishery managers and those
in the seafood industry about the early implementation of ecolabelling and its
impacts. In preparing this new topic we asked the contributors to concentrate on
the developments since the publication of the first topic in 2003. This topic deals
with seafood, both farmed and wild capture, and the content includes various forms
of consumer programmes such as ecolabelling, guides and rating systems, with a
worldwide focus.
The contributors to this topic have been invited to 'tell their own story', and so
the following chapters represent a perspective from each author that relates to their
own experience with seafood ecolabelling. While there is more than a decade of
