Aquaculture

The Freshwater Trout Aquaculture Dialogue today released the final draft of its global standards for certifying farmed trout. 

WWF announced three fishing devices to save lives of seabirds, fish, turtles, and other marine life, as the winners of the 2011 International Smart Gear Competition today in Seattle, Washington.

The final step in the process of creating global standards for freshwater trout farming began when the Dialogue kicked off the last public comment period for the draft standards.

The final step in the process of creating global standards for salmon farming began when the Dialogue kicked off the last public comment period for the draft standards.

The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue met in Saint John, New Brunswick this week to discuss draft standards to improve the environmental and social sustainability of the salmon aquaculture industry. 

Global standards addressing the potential negative impacts of abalone farming on the environment and society were finalized today by the Abalone Aquaculture Dialogue, a diverse consortium of organizations and stakeholders led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today announced a new collaboration with SUPERVALU, one of the largest food retailers in the United States, to create a strategy for sustainably sourcing the store’s wild-caught seafood. As part of the collaboration, WWF will help SUPERVALU assess the sources of the company’s top 20 wild-caught seafood species. The assessments will inform the development of a new sustainable seafood sourcing strategy that will drive the company’s seafood purchases. This includes evaluating Marine Stewardship Council certification for wild species.

Draft standards for the shrimp aquaculture industry will be presented and discussed at the next meeting of the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue, to be held March 9-10 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Feedback from the meeting will be used to ensure that the final standards adequately address the key negative environmental and social impacts associated with shrimp farming.

The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue will meet in Bergen, Norway this week to present draft environmental indicators for the salmon farming industry. More than 90 people – including representatives from environmental organizations, salmon producers and scientists from the world’s most prominent salmon farming regions – are expected to attend and provide feedback on the draft indicators.

Feedback on draft global standards for pangasius aquaculture that was received during the first public comment period for the standards will be reviewed at the next meeting of the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue, to be held August 5-6 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

WASHINGTON, DC and KOELN, GERMANY: GLOBALGAP will offer an expansion to its program so aquaculture producers can be certified in one step for implementing practices that help ensure the production of safe food in conjunction with environmentally and socially responsible farming.

The Abalone Aquaculture Dialogue will convene its next meeting in Pattaya, Thailand to encourage producers, conservationists, scientists and others to provide input on the development of global standards for the abalone farming industry – an industry that produces almost 70 percent of the abalone consumed worldwide.

Draft standards for responsible pangasius farming, created by the 250-plus participants of the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue (PAD), were posted for public comment today.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today announced a partnership agreement with SYSCO, the nation’s largest foodservice distributor, to develop a strategy for responsibly-sourced seafood.  Under the agreement, WWF will assess the sourcing of SYSCO’s top 10 branded seafood species and work with the company to develop strategies that build on its efforts to move towards sustainable seafood sourcing.  Implementation of the strategy will be addressed during the second phase of the partnership.  SYSCO is also a supporter of the multi-stakeholder roundtables, called Aquaculture Dialogues, which WWF coordinates and will provide financial support for the shrimp and salmon Dialogues.

Global standards for responsible seafood farming, which are under development by the Aquaculture Dialogue roundtables, will be managed by a new entity to be co-founded by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The commission tasked with protecting Atlantic bluefin tuna has once again failed to save the species, according to World Wildlife Fund. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) decided to ignore its own scientists’ recommendations, setting catch quotas well above sustainable levels and allowing industrial fishing fleets to capture tuna at the height of its spawning period. Other avenues, beyond ICCAT, must now be explored in order to protect bluefin tuna.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) will meet from November 17- 24 in Marrakech, Morocco to make decisions on measures to save Mediterranean bluefin tuna from collapse.

More than 80 of the world’s salmon aquaculture industry stakeholders – including producers, NGO representatives, retailers, government representatives and scientists – met here this week to move forward with developing global standards for salmon aquaculture. The standards, when adopted, will help minimize or eliminate the salmon farming industry’s key impacts on the environment and society.

The process of creating the world’s first set of credible standards for minimizing the key environmental and social impacts of the cobia and Seriola aquaculture industries will begin in February, when the inaugural meeting of the Seriola and Cobia Aquaculture Dialogue is held.

Feedback on draft standards for tilapia aquaculture that is received during the first public comment period for the standards will be reviewed at the next meeting of the Tilapia Aquaculture Dialogue. The meeting will be December 15-16 at the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) US headquarters in Washington, DC.

The process of creating the world’s first set of credible standards for minimizing the key environmental and social impacts of the trout aquaculture industry will begin in November, when the inaugural meeting of the Trout Aquaculture Dialogue is held.

The world’s salmon aquaculture industry leaders will meet in the United Kingdom in November to move forward with developing measurable standards for salmon farming. The standards will help minimize the industry’s key impacts on the environment and society.

The Mollusc Aquaculture Dialogue will broaden its reach to Europe in November to engage stakeholders from one of the world's most influential mollusc farming regions in the process of creating standards for responsible mollusc farming.

The first set of measurable, performance-based tilapia aquaculture standards created through a transparent and multi-stakeholder process was released for public comment today. They are the first draft standards from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-initiated Aquaculture Dialogues.

The world’s shrimp aquaculture industry leaders and other stakeholders will meet in South America and Southeast Asia this fall to develop standards for shrimp farming that has a minimal impact on the environment and society.

Faced with declining populations of bigeye and yellowfin tuna, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) concluded its annual meeting last week in Panama City and failed to produce a binding conservation agreement. This was the IATTC’s fourth attempt in the past year to adopt conservation measures to combat overfishing and launch the recovery of certain tuna populations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Once again negotiations failed.

The process of creating standards for certifying farmed abalone is underway. The standards will help minimize the key environmental and social impacts associated with abalone production.

World Wildlife Fund is one of more than a dozen U.S. and Canadian organizations that today released steps companies can take to develop and implement a comprehensive, corporate policy on sustainable, wild-caught and farmed seafood. The “Common Vision for Environmentally Sustainable Seafood” highlights a clear path for achieving sustainability in the seafood industry.

WASHINGTON, DC: Criteria and indicators that will be used to create standards for responsible shrimp farming are under development for the shrimp industries in East Africa and Central America/Mexico.

Criteria and indicators that will be used to create standards for responsible shrimp farming are under development for the shrimp industries in East Africa and Central America/Mexico.

Nominations are due by April 30th for the Technical Working Groups (TWG) that will draft criteria, indicators and measurable standards for certifying sustainable pangasius farming. Recommendations from the TWGs will be presented to the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue – a diverse group of pangasius farming stakeholders – for final consideration by the end of this year.

BARCELONA: The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue met in Barcelona, Spain this week to discuss new reports about escapes, siting and benthic impacts related to salmon farming. Draft principles, or high-level goals that address the impacts of salmon farming, also were presented.

WASHINGTON, DC: Mollusc aquaculture stakeholders participating in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-initiated Mollusc Aquaculture Dialogue will meet this winter and spring to develop standards for certifying molluscs farmed in North America. The standards will minimize or eliminate the main negative effects of mollusc farming, which were agreed on by Dialogue participants last fall.

WASHINGTON: The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue met in Santiago, Chile this week to discuss new reports about two of the key impacts of salmon aquaculture production - chemical inputs and nutrient loading/carrying capacity - and the socioeconomic costs and benefits of salmon aquaculture.

WASHINGTON, DC: Salmon producers, retailers, scientists, environmental groups and others from throughout the world will meet in Chile in December to review new reports about two of the main impacts of salmon aquaculture production: chemical inputs and nutrient loading/carrying capacity. Information in the reports will then be used to guide discussions about developing jointly acceptable global standards for salmon aquaculture. A discussion about the socioeconomic costs and benefits of salmon aquaculture globally and in Chile also will be on the agenda.

WASHINGTON, DC: The process for certifying mollusc aquaculture products - which make up one-quarter of the world's aquaculture production - was set in motion this month as producers, buyers, scientists and others interested in molluscs met in Oregon to discuss standards for an eco-label for oysters, clams, mussels and scallops.

WASHINGTON, DC: During the inaugural meeting of the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue, more than 70 producers, buyers, government officials and others from around the world agreed that there is an urgent need and willingness to certify pangasius aquaculture products.

WASHINGTON, DC: The unique issues related to tilapia farming in Asia will be addressed in standards for certifying tilapia aquaculture products, which are under revision in response to feedback about fish farming in Asia received at the first Tilapia Aquaculture Dialogue meeting in that country.

WASHINGTON, DC: Mollusc producers and buyers, as well as other stakeholders, from throughout the United States and Canada will meet in Oregon October 12th to discuss standards for the certification of mollusc aquaculture products, which make up one-quarter of the world's aquaculture production.

WASHINGTON, DC: Pangasius producers and buyers, as well as other stakeholders, from throughout the world will meet in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam September 26-27 to begin developing standards for certifying Pangasius aquaculture products - one of the fastest growing types of aquaculture.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following two years of transparent, multi-stakeholder meetings with many of the world's top tilapia producers and buyers, draft standards for certifying tilapia aquaculture products are developed and will be on the agenda for two high-level tilapia meetings this month.

WASHINGTON, DC: Jose Villalon, a 26-year veteran of the aquaculture industry, is the new director of World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) aquaculture program. Villalon's primary role is to oversee the Aquaculture Dialogues, a set of multi-stakeholder groups developing standards for more sustainable aquaculture production. WWF is the catalyst for the dialogues.

WASHINGTON - World Wildlife Fund announced today that it is working with the leading producers of farmed seafood including catfish, tilapia, basa, abalone, oysters, clams, scallops and mussels to improve the industry's environmental performance. Separate discussions are underway -- called "aquaculture dialogues"-- for tilapia, catfish and molluscs. All are focused on developing credible and measurable standards that could be used in investment and buyer screens or a certification program to reduce or eliminate the key impacts of the aquaculture industry.