July 16, 2024 — The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations’ Committee on Fisheries (COFI) has endorsed a new set of guidelines for aquaculture designed to develop a set of best practices for the industry worldwide.
The Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture (GSA) was designed with the aid of NOAA and other stakeholders and officially endorsed by COFI at the committee’s 36th session in Rome, Italy. The new guidelines come after the FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report showed that fisheries and aquaculture production hit a new high of 223.2 million metric tons (MT) in 2022 – with aquaculture contributing over 57 percent of aquatic animal products for direct human consumption.