The fourth set of certification standards crafted by the Aquaculture Dialogues has been finalized, the World Wildlife Fund announced on Thursday.
The completion of abalone certification standards marks the halfway point for the Aquaculture Dialogues, which is developing a total of eight sets of certification standards. Standards for bivalves, pangasius and tilapia have already been adopted, while standards for shrimp, freshwater trout, salmon and seriola and cobia are expected to be finalized by mid-2011.
“Given that the process we used to create the standards was transparent and involved more than 100 people, including farmers and scientists from the world’s key abalone production countries, we now have the most credible abalone aquaculture standards in the marketplace,” said Vincent Encena of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center. Encena is a member of the Abalone Aquaculture Dialogue Steering Committee.
The certification process for standards developed by the Aquaculture Dialogues will be overseen by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, which is expected to be operational by mid-2011. The standards will be amended regularly to incorporate new science and technology and to encourage continuous improvement on farms.
The new abalone standards seek to minimize the key environmental and social impacts associated with farming the mollusk by, for example, requiring bio-secure quarantine for wild-to-farm translocations and requiring evidence of compliance with a documented protocol for health surveillance and disease response.
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