Ecolabelling of Seafood: The Basic Concepts - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 16

Objective 2. Where the fished stock(s) are below a defined reference point, the
fishery will be managed to promote recovery to ecologically viable stock levels
within nominated time frames.
Principle 2
Fishing operations should be managed to minimise their impact on the structure,
productivity, function and biological diversity of the ecosystem.
Objective 1. The fishery is conducted in a manner that does not threaten bycatch
species.
Objective 2. The fishery is conducted in a manner that avoids mortality of, or
injuries to, endangered, threatened or protected species and avoids or minimises
impacts on threatened ecological communities.
Objective 3. The fishery is conducted in a manner that minimises the impact of
fishing operations on the ecosystem generally.
From http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/fisheries/publications/
guidelines.html.
Third-party certification systems are based on standards set external to the in-
dustry or ventures being assessed, and typically are derived from extensive in-
dustry, government and community consultation. The process of assessment of
compliance of ventures/products with the standard is carried out by third-party
certifiers who are independent of the standard owner and of the ventures being
assessed, and usually are formally accredited to conduct the assessment of compli-
ance by the standard owner. Third-party certification systems also normally have
a well-developed chain-of-custody assessment processes to ensure that there is no
mixing of certified and non-certified product in the supply chain or in the mar-
ketplace. The standard used in third-party systems will typically be a compromise
between the best sustainability performance expected by the most discerning con-
sumers and the capacity of a significant number of producers to meet the standard.
In this case, the standard will normally be set so that at least some producers can
meet the standard, otherwise very little ecolabelled product would be available in
the marketplace, denying the opportunity for a market-based incentive to develop.
The best example of a third-party certification in seafood ecolabelling is the MSC
(May et al . 2003; see Chapter 4).
A further important feature that distinguishes individual ecolabelling pro-
grammes is the focus (purpose) of the programme. Some programmes focus
on only one sustainability issue, while others are much broader, dealing with
many or even all aspects of ecological sustainability. Some labelling programmes