Fish and Seafood Sourcing Policy
Fish and seafood are limited resources. These resources, if sourced responsibly, have the capacity to recuperate their stock populations and thrive. AquaFoods understands the leverage it has as a company within the fishing industry and its responsibility to promote sustainable practices that can guarantee access to these resources for future generations as well as preserving an adequate natural balance. Therefore, AquaFoods has developed its Fish and Seafood Sourcing Policy, which will be utilized as a guide when sourcing our products.
Our goal is to offer fish and seafood products that are attractive to consumers, support healthy oceans and are sourced from socially and environmentally responsible producers.
AquaFoods Fish and Seafood Sourcing Policy
To better protect our oceans, our company adheres to the following best practices at a minimum:
- We do not deal in species listed as Endangered, Threatened or Protected according to well known organizations like, IUCN, CITES, amongst others.
- We only source fish from artisanal fishing boats that use hand lines or long lines, and fished in legal zones (not in Marine Protected Areas).
- All of our fish are line-caught with circular hooks.
- All the fish we sell complies with regional standards for minimum sizes.
- We observe fishery bans and closures.
- Pelagic fish sourced come from fisheries that are managed through Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) or are in process of becoming part of a FIP.
- Our suppliers commit to participating FIP in improvement action plans.
- Compliance, throughout the sourcing cycle, of minimum social standards (International Labor Organization and other national regulation).