New tool grades fishery improvement projects

The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has introduced a new system for evaluating and grading fishery improvement projects (FIPs) in the hopes of supplying the seafood industry with a means to measure the effectiveness of such initiatives as they unfold.

The new evaluation tool utilizes the data that SFP routinely collects on FIPs to render a snapshot of a given project’s status and progress. FIPs are ranked against six stages of achievement, each with their own range of criteria. Metrics will outline how close a FIP is to achieving sustainability certification from a third party such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), for example, as well as if and how the project has publically demonstrated its progress.

“This tool makes it even easier for our partners to see just where a FIP stands,” said SFP Systems Division Director Braddock Spear in a prepared statement. “It’s a great way to monitor a FIP’s progress toward sustainability.”

A letter grade will be bestowed by the evaluation system depending on which stage the FIP is in and how satisfactorily it meets the corresponding requirements. Grades range from A to E, with an “A” grade indicating exceptional progress and an “E” grade indicating negligible progress, explained SFP.

The evaluation tool will prove useful to retail and wholesale buyers as well as others looking to source seafood from FIPs, providing an easy-to-use gauge to base purchasing decisions upon.

“Sam’s Club and Walmart have been incorporating FIPs and AIPs into our sustainable seafood policy since 2010, when there were less than a half a dozen FIPs globally,” said Bob Fields, senior merchandise director for meat and seafood Sam’s Club. “Today, there are over a hundred, which is why we are excited to see SFP producing such a valuable addition to its already-useful FIP information tools. We are committed to only sourcing from FIPs that demonstrate legitimate progress, and will use the ratings to monitor the progress of the FIPs that we source from.”

SFP has already put the tool to use, grading a variety of FIPs to demonstrate the system’s parameters. FIP grades can be accessed here.

The tool will be updated intermittently in the future, said SFP. The organization welcomes industry feedback about the evaluation system – comments can be submitted to [email protected].

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