Aquaculture certification schemes cover a growing proportion of farmed seafood, but significant gaps remain in species coverage, welfare requirements, and independent auditing quality.
Aquaculture certification presents a significant information challenge for welfare-conscious consumers. The proliferation of schemes with varying scope, standards, and auditing rigour makes genuine welfare differentiation difficult from a label alone. Environmental sustainability and fish welfare are different dimensions that may or may not be addressed by any given certification. The largest certification scheme, ASC, focuses primarily on environmental standards and addresses fish welfare only partially. For consumers seeking to support meaningful fish welfare improvements through purchasing choices, researching the specific welfare content of available certifications for each species of interest is necessary. Advocacy for stronger welfare requirements to be integrated into all major aquaculture certification schemes is an important systemic improvement.