Global Trust Certifies First Seafish Responsible Fishing Vessels (Date:30 September 2011)
The first 20 new Responsible Fishing Certificates have been issued to Fishing Vessels certified by Global Trust against the Seafish Responsible Fishing Standard. These are the first of 400 vessels in application across the UK, a further 60 vessels will be audited in the autumn of 2011. The Responsible Fishing Scheme is being managed by Global Trust on behalf of Seafish UK.
Peter Marshall, Chief Executive of Global Trust says, "We are delighted to be assisting Seafish with this important initiative. The program is highly relevant, practical and valuable in assisting the fishermen to demonstrate to seafood buyers their commitment to producing high integrity seafood. We congratulate this first new batch of Certified Fishing Vessels who represent ports in England, Isle of Man and Holland. This is an important and tangible milestone in the sustainability journey”.
The Responsible Fishing Scheme was created by Seafish UK in response to the needs of the UK seafood supply chain to assist Fishermen demonstrate their commitment to the responsible sourcing of seafood. The standard has now been adopted in Holland and Sri Lanka.
Based on a Publicly Available Specification from the British Standards Institution (BSi), the Responsible Fishing Scheme is an independent, audited assessment of the application of good practice by a vessel skipper and crew in their fishing operations. The Standard covers four key areas, namely, Fishing practices, Vessel maintenance, Crew competence and Environmental considerations.
Mike Platt the Programme Manager for Global Trust stated. “The new Global Trust RFS auditors have been formally trained and are now getting the assessments completed,. I am proud that they have shown the flexibility in an effort to conduct these assessments at a time most suitable for the participating skippers. The feedback from the auditors is that they the standards on the vessels assessed so far have been high.”
For further Information please contact:
Global Trust - Mike Platt
Contact Details mikeplatt@gtcert.com
Mobile 0783 7836438
Seafish – Mick Bacon
Contact Details M_Bacon@seafish.co.uk
Mobile 07976222936