SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — January 6, 2015 — Damon Morris is interviewed on Louisiana's history of certification in the last video in our series produced by Steve Minor, on the need for the Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative.
The GSSI, by providing a international benchmarking tool, is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of credible and accepted fisheries certifications.
Morris says that Louisiana as 70 to 80 separate fisheries, and the average certification cost would be around $100,000 per fishery – something that is just impossible for Louisiana to pay.
As a result, he thinks if Lousiana can't do this for its smaller warm water fisheries, how can it be done in Vietnam or India. In short, large scale certifications only work for certain fisheries, and that is why he supports the GSSI approach that can create a benchmark under FAO guidelines for all fisheries, including smaller scale warm water fisheries.
Click here to watch the video
This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.