The World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday announced that the Aquaculture Dialogues’ standards for pangasius and bivalves have been completed.
The announcement comes about a week after the Global Aquaculture Alliance finalized its Best Aquaculture Practices pangasius standards.
The Aquaculture Dialogues process is designed to create measurable, performance-based certification standards that minimize or eliminate the key environmental and social impacts of farming seafood.
More than 400 individuals submitted input during two public comment periods for both the pangasius and bivalves standards. Also, outreach meetings were held with small-scale pangasius farmers in Vietnam and Bangladesh, as well as bivalve farmers in China, Australia and Canada.
“This is a huge milestone for the Aquaculture Dialogues,” said Jose Villalon, WWF’s managing director for U.S. aquaculture. “The timing could not be better. With the aquaculture industry growing so quickly, there is a tremendous need for standards that are created through a credible process — one that is open, transparent and based on sound science.”
Four sets of draft standards (freshwater trout, abalone, shrimp and salmon) are in the process of being reviewed or finalized and now three sets of standards (pangasius, bivalves and tilapia) have been completed.
The certification process for the standards will be overseen by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, which is due to be up and running by mid-2011.
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