The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) and MarinTrust signed a memorandum of understanding whereby the two organizations will work together to make 75% of the world’s marine ingredients supplies either certified, in assessment, in application or in the MarinTrust Improver Program by 2025.

Both GSA and MarinTrust are standards holders. MarinTrust is the world’s leading certification program for the marine ingredient value chain, owning the MarinTrust Standard for Responsible Supply, MarinTrust Chain of Custody for Responsible Supply and MarinTrust Improver Program, while GSA (formerly the Global Aquaculture Alliance) owns the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification programs as well as the Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard.

The MoU formalizes a long-standing relationship between GSA and MarinTrust and directly benefits the global seafood value chain by providing end-to-end assurances through third-party auditing and certification.

To meet this goal, GSA and MarinTrust have identified seven areas of collaboration. These areas include:

• GSA has agreed to contribute to the development and expansion of the MarinTrust multispecies criteria, which is designed to enable the assessment of highly complex fisheries in which multiple species are caught at the same time. There is currently one fishery improvement project (FIP), the Gulf of Thailand mixed-trawl fishery, that has been accepted into the Improver Program as part of the multispecies pilot project.
• GSA has agreed to continue to provide representation on the MarinTrust Governing Body Committee, Standards Steering Committee and Social and Ethical Committee, while MarinTrust has agreed to provide representation on the GSA Feed Mill Standard Technical Group.
• GSA and MarinTrust have agreed to collaborate on the development and implementation of a digital system to allow interoperability between both organizations.

“Collaboration in areas that are common to all standards, including digitalization and assurance, is a fantastic way to provide assurances to the full aquaculture value chain, from the origin of feed ingredients to the end consumer,” said CEO of MarinTrust, Francisco Aldon.