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Public Comment Period Open for Seafood Watch Aquaculture and Fisheries Standards

Please review the request for public comment below from Seafood Watch. Please not that this comment period ends on September 18, 2016 and, therefore, allows little time to fully review the standards and submit an appropriate comment.

Courtesy of SeafoodWatch:

Seafood Watch assesses the sustainability of fisheries and fish farms by compiling relevant science-based information and evaluating that information against our standards. We periodically revise our standards to ensure we take into account developments in the scientific understanding of the impacts of fisheries and aquaculture operations, as well as in our understanding of what producers and managers can do to mitigate those impacts.

Seafood Watch, which assesses the sustainability of fisheries and fish farms by compiling relevant science-based information and evaluating that information, is collecting public comments on proposed modifications to the Standard for Wild Fisheries and Standard for Aquaculture. All comments on other areas of the standards will be considered during the next Seafood Watch Standards Revision process in 2019. This fourth public comment period will end September 18, 2016. You are encouraged to view background information on the revision process and submit comments by visiting the Seafood Watch website (link below). The solicitation for this public comment period is under the heading Public Consultation 4.

The intent with these changes is to improve clarity and ease of use of the standard, but there are two areas which could potentially be more substantive. These are 1) when to use the Unknown Bycatch Matrices in Criterion 2 in the Standard for Wild Fisheries and 2) the appropriate assumed percentage of harvested farmed fish byproduct used for further protein production in Criterion 5 in the Standard for Aquaculture. Comments on these aspects in particular would be useful.

Review the standards here.

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