Friend of the Sea has announced the deployment of an onsite permanent international monitoring program to provide constant lot-by-lot sustainable origin verification and real chain of custody. The monitoring program will follow and complement the audit run by the independent certification bodies to verify if the fisheries or aquaculture sites are compliant with Friend of the Sea criteria.
The first permanent onsite monitors will be activated in the beginning of April in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Other monitors will be operational before the summer in India, Morocco, South America and Vietnam. Friend of the Sea is planning to gradually deploy local monitors in every country where Friend of the Sea companies are operating.
“Friend of the Sea is the only certification scheme implementing 100% onsite monitoring, following the initial compliance audit.” explains Dr Paolo Bray, director of Friend of the Sea “Only a seafood certification scheme providing permanent onsite monitoring can make credible claims. We suggest all companies looking for certified seafood products to demand full time onsite origin verification”
Onsite monitors will inspect seafood lots when offloaded at harbors, stored, processed and shipped. They will verify that the product originates from an approved Friend of the Sea fishery and that no mixing with other origins occurred.
