Are you a Friend of the Sea? SMS check seafood before you buy it!

    /24-7PressRelease/ - March 11, 2007 - Whether you are at a restaurant, reading the Menu, or in a supermarket or local fish market, you will be able, in a handful of seconds to receive detailed information about seafood species environmental status. The registered service applies standard mobile phone SMS charges with not extra charge (US: 90430; UK: 07781489880; Rest of the World: 0044.7781489880; other new EU numbers will be activated by the end of March). You will simply have to write in the species' common name (e.g.: cod) or scientific name (e.g. Gadus morhua) (write FISH before the species for the US version) and FRIEND OF THE SEA will answer you back immediately with a comprehensive description of most recent stock assessment and fishing method impact and selectivity. If the fishery is sustainable, the system will tell you it's a Good Choice. If the fishery is unsustainable, the stock is depleted or on the IUCN Redlist of endangered species, you will be notified about the conservation concerns regarding the fishery.

FRIEND OF THE SEA is also a main certification scheme for products from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. It is the only scheme in the world covering both wild caught and farmed seafood (offshore or inland), providing a unified logo for all certified seafood products.

Fisheries conform and are approved if the stock is neither depleted, nor overexploited nor data deficient and if the fishing method generates less than 8% discards (the average worldwide) and has no impact on the seabed.

An independent accredited body, currently Bureau Veritas, audits products for chain of custody and aquaculture plants based on a strict checklist. On this aspect, Friend of the Sea follows recent FAO Guidelines for certification of products from sustainable fisheries. The certification process is strict but fast, comprehensive but relatively inexpensive, as the yearly fee covering both audit costs and license to use the logo totals 1.000,00 euros per product. Products from traditional fisheries in developing countries are audited at not cost, in order to facilitate their involvement in the sustainable seafood products market, as suggested by FAO.

FRIEND OF THE SEA has encountered a strong market response and in only 2 years since it launch, Carrefour, Coop and Iper markets around Europe have joined and assessed all their private label products. Some have decided to take off endangered species from their shelves. Both fresh, frozen and canned products are already on the European, US and African markets with the logo. Among these, organic salmon, halibut and cod farmed in the Shetland Islands; tuna fished pole an line in the Azores; Mediterranean anchovies, Atlantic sardines and Mackerels fished by purse seiners; turbot farmed in Northern Spain; Italian Caviar from farmed sturgeon and many others.

"At the current rate of expansion, we expect in 2008 to become the main international certification scheme for sustainable seafood" affirms Dr Paolo Bray, director of FRIEND OF THE SEA. "Key success factors are the simple and clearer message, the strictest approval criteria, the lower cost, and the non profit, industry independent soul of our mission".

For further information: Friend of the Sea -- www.friendofthesea.org - [email protected] - Skype: friend.of.the.sea - Tel HQ:+39.348.5650306 - USA East Coast: 001.617.418-3491 - USA West Coast: 001.415.508.5293 - UK 0044.020 7193 4146 - Boston Seafood Expo stand 482.

Graphic images are available. Please request
http://www.friendofthesea.org or
[email protected]

About Friend of the Sea
Friend of the Sea is an NGO and also a project for certification and promotion of seafood products from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.

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