Ecolabelling of capture fisheries products

A recent FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Paper Review of ecolabelling schemes for fish and fishery products from capture fisheries sumarizes the standards, requirements and practices for well-managed fisheries, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to FAO.

The position of small-scale and developing country fisheries are considered, where often the cost of cost of monitoring, assessment and management can be out of proportion to the value of the fishery and/or beyond the human and infrastructure capacity needed for management. In relation to this, the need for the development, testing and use of suitable proxies, empirical indicators and risk-based assessment methods are considered. Enhancement of fisheries are discussed in the context of ecolabelling and the need to distinguish clearly between wild capture fisheries, enhanced fisheries and aquaculture is emphasized. The review concludes with suggested minimum substantive requirements for the FAO guidelines on ecolabelling of capture fisheries.