Friend of the Sea is a non-profit non- governative organisation (NGO) for the conservation of marine habitat by means of market incentives, in particular the certification and promotion of sustainable seafood and products from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
Friend of the Sea was founded by Dr Paolo Bray, also European Director of the Earth Island Institute's Dolphin-Safe Project - the precursor project of all sustainable seafood and fisheries certification schemes. The Dolphin-Safe Project managed to save millions of dolphins from getting targetted, bycaught and killed by the industrial tuna industry.
Friend of the Sea is the only scheme in the world which can certify, with the same seal of approval, products both farmed and wild-caught.
Friend of the Sea is currently the main sustainable seafood certification scheme in the world, having assessed more than 10 million MT of wild-catch and 500 thousand MT of farmed products.
Certified sustainable seafood and products from all continents include anchovies, caviar, clams, cuttlefish, halibut, kingfish, mackerel, mulloway, mussels, prawns, salmon, sardines, seabass, seabream, shrimps, squid, sturgeon, trout, tuna, turbot. Fishmeal, fishfeed and Omega-3 Fish oil have also been certified.
Sustainable seafood, products and their origins are audited onsite by international certification bodies, against Friend of the Sea criteria. Certficiation bodies currenlty auditing against Friend of the Sea criteria are Aqa, Bureau Veritas, IFQC and SGS
Friend of the Sea Criteria are the only ones in the market which follow the FAO - Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. In particular, Friend of the Sea Criteria fulfill also Art 30 of the Guidelines, in that it allows certification only of products from fisheries targeting stocks which are NOT OVEREXPLOITED.
Criteria for Sustainable Fisheries require, among the others, that:
- the fishery targets a stock which is not considered to be overexploited according to the most updated stock status report from FAO, Regional Fishery Bodies or National Marine Authorities;
- the fishing method does not bycatch species listed in the IUCN Redlist;
- the fishing method does not discard more than 8% in weight of the total catch;
- the fishing method does not impact the seabed;
- the fishery complies with regulations (TAC, no IUU nor FOC, mesh size, minimum size, MAPs, etc).
Criteria for Sustainable Aquaculture require, among the others:
- an Environmental Impact Assessment or equivalent be run before the development of the plant;
- plant is not impacting critical habitats, such as mangroves, wetlands, etc;
- procedures are in place to limit escapes of fish to a negligible level;
- NO use of GMO and growth hormones;
- NO use of antifouling paints;
- Waste, Water, Feed and Energy Management are in place;
- Use of FriendOfTheSea certified feed (currently for trout, seabream and seabass)
Both Criteria for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture include requirements on Carbon Footprint reduction and offset and Social Accountability.
Traceability is audited onsite, while a yearly traceability surveillance is run on all purchase reports.
Friend of the Sea criteria can be modified only by the Technical Committee - an independent body, open to all those involved in the Seafood and fish feed / fish meal fields, composed of a balanced representation of all stakeholders (NGOs, Industry, Fisheries, Governative Organizations, Scientific Institutes) from all 5 continents.
