The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is an independent non-profit organisation and labelling organization that establishes protocol on farmed seafood while ensuring sustainable aquaculture. The ASC provides producers with a certification of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council was founded in 2010 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) [1] [2] to manage and implement socially responsible aquaculture.[3]
The current ASC CEO is Chris Ninnes.[4] In February 2016, Aldin Hilbrands, Meghan Jeans, Scott Nichols, and Ling Cao joined the ASC Supervisory Board.[5]
The ASC has standards for the 12 following species: abalone, bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters and scallops), freshwater trout, pangasius, salmon, seriola and cobia, shrimp, and tilapia.[6]
Several pre-competitive organizations are now using the rigorous ASC standards as a means to progress their industry towards more environmental sustainability and social responsibility: such as the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI, established in 2013); and the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership (SSP, launched in March 2018[7]) which operates in Ecuador.[8] The GSI member companies (representing over 50% of the world's global farmed salmon production) have pledge to have all their salmon farms ASC-certified by 2020.[9][improper synthesis?]
In 2010, the ASC appointed the Accreditation Services International (ASI) to accredit and oversee certifiers of aquaculture businesses.[2]
The ASC covers certifies different species groups which includes Tilapia, Salmon, Pangasius, Bivalves, Cobia and Shrimp. In November 2017, a Seaweed Standard was also launched by the ASC together with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Certified ASC products are now available around the world in Austria, Belgium, Canada , Czech Republic, Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway , Slovenia, Spain , Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom .[10]
Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaculture Stewardship Council.
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