Certification body Moody Marine Ltd was asked to amend the Final Report of the Ross Sea toothfish assessment to take into account his decision to uphold four of the objections lodged by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) against the certification. The decision follows a 12 month scientific assessment of the fishery by Moody Marine, and a ten month review of the objection.
The Independent Adjudicator, Michael Lodge, concludes that the certifier failed to provide adequate evidence to justify the high scores awarded on four specific performance indicators such as the evaluation of harvest strategies, management and regulation of vessels, and the extent and effectiveness of stakeholder consultation by the relevant national and regional management bodies.
In December 2009 the objection was submitted which include the challenges to the scores of over 30 performance indicators of which eleven were remanded to the certifier for review and either rescoring or to provide an improved explanation for retaining the score. Lodge has accepted the certifier’s justification for retaining the score on seven of the performance indicators remanded. He also accepted that the certifier had adequately considered stakeholder comments submitted during the assessment, and therefore dismissed an objection on procedural grounds.
