San Diego, CA — FISH Standard for Crew Inc. is pleased to announce it has successfully completed the Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) Benchmarking process and achieved SSCI recognition. FISH, a voluntary, independent certification program for labour practices on fishing vessels, successfully benchmarked against the SSCI Social Compliance: At-Sea Operations scope. The Consumer Goods Forum’s SSCI announced FISH’s recognition on March 10, 2025 in a press release.
SSCI is committed to building trust in social and environmental sustainability standards by recognizing programs that uphold key criteria set by leading industry stakeholders. The rigorous SSCI benchmark process asssesses the certification program’s standard, as well as its management and governance, against 140 criterion to ensure it is operating in a credible and transparent manner.
“We are very proud to join the handful of programs that have been recognized by SSCI, a principle that helps guide the market towards credible certification programs like FISH,” said Fridrik Fridriksson, Chair of the FISH Board of Directors. “With labor on fishing vessels an ongoing concern among stakeholders, practical and credible approaches like FISH are needed to help address these concerns.”
Mike Kraft, FISH Executive Director added, “While FISH provides harvesters an independent process to demonstrate their fleets meet the highest levels of performance with respect to crew treatment and onboard conditions, it can also serve as a tangible supply chain due diligence tool for the market. We hope SSCI recognition will give the market increased confidence to support and highlight those fleets that proactively stepped up to achieve FISH certification and begin to incentivize others to move towards certification and help drive positive change for fishers.”
Didier Bergeret, Director of Sustainability at the CGF, said “SSCI recognition of the FISH Standard for Crew signifies a crucial step towards greater transparency and credibility in the seafood supply chain. By benchmarking and recognizing robust standards like FISH, we empower businesses and consumers to make informed choices and support genuinely sustainable practices.”
To date, ten geographically and operationally diverse fleets from have achieved FISH Standard for Crew certification. FISH is actively working with additional organizations and fleets around the world.
FISH Standard for Crew provides a voluntary, independent and accredited third-party certification program for labour practices on vessels in wild-capture fisheries around the globe. The FISH Standard is based on ILO-C188 and related guidance.
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) builds trust in sustainability standards worldwide by benchmarking third-party auditing and certification programs and recognising schemes that meet industry expectations. By providing an open-source list of recognised programs, the SSCI delivers clear guidance on which schemes cover key sustainability criteria and apply relevant verification practices. The SSCI improves transparency in the market, facilitates decision-making on schemes at both buyer and supplier level and sets the responsible sourcing expectations for the industry.
The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 55 manufacturer and retailer CEOs.
