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Friend of the Sea is a registred non-profit non-governative organisation (NGO), founded in December 2006 aiming, by Statute, at conserving marine habitat and resources by means of market incentives and specific conservation projects.

Friend of the Sea was founded by Dr Paolo Bray, also European Director of the Earth Island Institute's Dolphin-Safe Project, the precursor of all seafood and fisheries certification schem, which managed to save millions of dolphins from getting targetted, bycaught and killed by the industrial tuna industry.

Friend of the Sea is the owner of the Certification Scheme for products originating from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. It is the only scheme in the world which can certify, with the same seal of approval, products both farmed and wild-caught.

Friend of the Sea is currently the main seafood certification scheme in the world, having assessed more than 10 million MT of wild-catch and 500 thousand MT of farmed products.

Certified products from all continents include anchovies, caviar, clams, cuttlefish, halibut, kingfish, mackerel, mulloway, mussels, prawns, salmon, seabass, seabream, shrimps, squid, sturgeon, trout, tuna, turbot. Fishmeal, fishfeed and Omega-3 Fish oil have also been certified.

Sustainable seafood, products and their origins are audited onsite by international certification bodies, against Friend of the Sea criteria. Certficiation bodies currenlty auditing against Friend of the Sea criteria are Aqa, Bureau Veritas, IFQC and SGS .

Friend of the Sea Criteria are the only ones in the market which follow the FAO - Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. In particular, UNLIKELY the other international certification scheme, Friend of the Sea Criteria fulfills also Art 30 of the Guidelines, in that it allows certification only of products from fisheries targeting stocks which are NOT OVEREXPLOITED.

Criteria for Sustainable Fisheries require, among the others, that:

- the fishery targets a stock which is not considered to be overexploited according to the most updated stock status report from FAO, Regional Fishery Bodies or National Marine Authorities;

- the fishing method does not bycatch species listed in the IUCN Redlist;

- the fishing method does not discard more than 8% in weight of the total catch;

- the fishing method does not impact the seabed;

- the fishery complies with regulations (TAC, no IUU nor FOC, mesh size, minimum size, MAPs, etc).

Criteria for Sustainable Aquaculture require, among the others, that:

- an Environmental Impact Assessment or equivalent be run before the development of the plant;

- plant is not impacting critical habitats, such as mangroves, wetlands, etc;

- procedures are in place to limit escapes of fish to a negligible level;

- NO use of GMO and growth hormones;

- NO use of antifouling paints;

- Waste, Water, Feed and Energy Management are in place;

- Use of FriendOfTheSea certified feed (currently for trout, seabream and seabass)

Both Criteria for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture include recommendations on Carbon Footprint reduction and offset and Social Accountability.

Traceability is audited onsite, while a yearly traceability surveillance is run on all purchase reports.