MarinTrust streamlines certification by recognizing GSSI-certified fisheries
GSSI-certified fisheries now meet MarinTrust’s key pre-check, reducing duplication and streamlining certification for marine ingredients
MarinTrust has announced that, as of August 2025, fisheries certified to standards benchmarked against Section D of the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative’s (GSSI) Global Benchmark Tool Version 2.0 will automatically meet the fishery assessment prerequisite under MarinTrust’s Whole Fish Fisheries Criteria Version 3. The change is intended to simplify the certification process while maintaining established assurance requirements.
The update is based on a third-party equivalency assessment that examined the alignment of certification clauses and the associated assurance systems. The results were reviewed by MarinTrust’s technical and stakeholder committees and approved by its Governing Body Committee on April 1, 2025.
MarinTrust is a third-party certification program for marine ingredients, including fishmeal and fish oil. The organization strives to increase the availability of certified marine ingredients while “maintaining a high level of assurance expected by the value chain.”
“We are pleased that the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) has achieved the recognition. GSSI is the first benchmark tool MarinTrust recognizes in this way,” said Laura Courage, assurance and risk manager at MarinTrust. “This fruitful collaboration will help reduce duplication, increase availability of approved raw material sources and ultimately increase the availability of certified marine ingredients.”
Under the MarinTrust Factory Standard, the unit of certification is the marine ingredient production facility. However, assessment and approval of the fishery supplying the raw material is a required step to ensure responsible sourcing.
With this update, fisheries already certified to GSSI-recognized standards will meet this prerequisite, eliminating the need for a separate fishery assessment under MarinTrust. This change is intended to reduce duplication for applicants and certificate holders, and individual standards recognized by GSSI will no longer require separate recognition by MarinTrust.
The alignment applies specifically to small pelagic fisheries used in the production of marine ingredients, consistent with MarinTrust’s scope. A review confirmed that the essential criteria outlined in Section D of GSSI’s Global Benchmark Tool Version 2.0 are fully aligned with the intent of MarinTrust’s Version 3 fishery requirements. As GSSI recognition requires compliance with all essential criteria, any standard recognized by GSSI is considered to meet MarinTrust’s fishery assessment prerequisite.
“This achievement is a testament to the strength of our partnership with MarinTrust and our shared commitment to expanding the supply of credibly certified fish and marine ingredients,” said GSSI’s CEO, Øyvind Ihle. “Given that our frameworks are aligned, we’re making life easier for fisheries and supply chains -helping them maintain the highest standards of assurance while reducing duplication and complexity. We’re pleased to see the GSSI Benchmark Framework serve as a trusted reference point (in sustainability assessments) to the benefit of this important sector.”
For further details, see MarinTrust’s Recognition of Equivalence Procedure.
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