MAC Certification and the Marine

Aquarium Hobbyist

Paul Holthus, Sunday, December 15th, 2002

on #reefs

Speaker's Biography

Paul Holthus, Executive Director: Over the past several decades, Paul has focused on the sustainable, environmentally sound use of coastal and ocean resources and the role of the private sector in achieving this. He has developed interaction among the shipping, tourism, oil and fisheries industries on ocean resource use; played a major part in establishing the Pacific Regional branch of the UN Environment Program; worked with the South Pacific Commission (now the Secretariat of the Pacific Community) and the East West Center; and set up global and regional programs for several of the largest international environment organizations. He has undertaken resource management projects in more than 30 countries and territories of Asia, the Pacific, Central America and Africa as well as international marine resource policy work on the Law of the Sea and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The range of this experience extends from site level work with village fishermen on small islands to global ocean policy work with UN agency directors.

Presentation

MAC Certification is a tool that provides you---the buyer of marine aquarium organisms---with an accurate and dependable method to ensure that you get healthy organisms from fisheries that are environmentally sound.

MAC Certification is necessary because some industry operators use practices that are destructive, such as cyanide; unsustainable, such as collecting unordered animals, and harmful to the collected organisms, such as poor husbandry and handling practices.

These irresponsible practices can result in coral reef destruction, over-harvesting of stocks, unnecessary mortality of organisms, unhealthy organisms being sold, unwanted organisms being sold, and unsuitable organisms being sold.

These practices run counter to the goals shared by those who are concerned about the future of the marine aquarium trade and hobby. The marine aquarium industry would like healthy, quality animals in a steady supply. Hobbyists and public aquariums desire quality marine organism that survive. Conservation organizations want healthy, productive reefs. Coastal communities need healthy reefs and stocks that can be sustainably harvested. Governments want management and conservation to ensure that reefs and stocks are healthy and productive.

These stakeholders agree that the aquarium industry has many benefits---if it is operated responsibly.

Those who collect and sell marine ornamentals---especially villagers living in rural low-income coastal areas---receive a much-needed income. Marine aquarium organisms are a renewable, local resource and the highest value-added reef product available to these communities. For example, by weight, aquarium fish are worth about 83 times more than food fish and live coral is 117 times more valuable than crushed coral used for construction.

In consumer countries, marine aquariums help raise public awareness of coral reef organisms and ecology and increase our knowledge about them. Aquariums reduce stress in those viewing them and are increasingly found in doctors’ offices. Both home aquarists and those who visit public aquariums come to know coral reefs better and become more conservation minded.

The industry also promotes conservation in the source countries. Because the marine aquarium industry gives reefs an economic value, it provides collectors and communities with incentives to keep the reefs healthy and to manage and conserve them for continued use. Communities involved in the aquarium trade are motivated to guard their reefs from a variety of destructive sources---including dynamite blasting, used to catch food fish, and sedimentation and pollution from land runoff.

Recognizing these shared interests and goals, stakeholders concerned about coral reefs and the marine aquarium trade joined together to establish the Marine Aquarium Council in 1998. The mission of MAC is to conserve coral reefs and other marine ecosystems by creating standards and certification for those engaged in the collection and care of ornamental marine life from reef to aquarium.

Today, MAC is a not-for-profit organization with officers in the Philippines, the South Pacific, the United States and Europe. It is also a growing, multi-stakeholder network, which includes thousands of individuals in 60 countries. The MAC Board of Directors is likewise international and multi-stakeholder in scope. A majority of its members represent conservation and public interests as required by the MAC bylaws.

MAC’s work to date has been focused on three key areas: (1) Co-ordinating the development of standards for quality marine aquarium organisms and sustainable practices. (2) Establishing a system for certification and labelling of compliance with these standards. (3) Creating consumer demand for and confidence in MAC Certification and MAC Certified marine ornamentals.

After years of multi-stakeholder consultations, the MAC Certification system was officially launched in November 2001. Seventy industry operators in 17 countries have made public their intent to become MAC Certified as soon as possible. In June 2002, the first of these industry operators were audited for compliance to the MAC Standards. They included three exporters and three collectors associations and their collection areas in the Philippines. A few months later, an importer in Canada and an importer and four retailers in the United States also received MAC Certification. Several other collection areas, collectors and exporters in the Philippines and Fiji and importers and retailers in the United States and Europe are working toward becoming MAC Certified in early 2003. MAC Certified organisms---those that have been collected in certified collection areas and handled only by certified industry operators---were made available in limited quantities in retail shops in 2002.

MAC Certification involves many stakeholders who are concerned about coral reef organisms. These include industry representatives, such as the Pets Industry Joint Advisory Council and the American Marinelife Dealers Association; hobbyist representatives, such as the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America; public aquarium representatives, such as the American Zoos and Aquariums Association; and conservation representatives, such as the World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy.
Most of these stakeholders are represented on the MAC Board of Directors.

MAC Certification also addresses the entire chain of custody for the marine aquarium trade. This chain includes collectors and exporters in about 45 supply countries. In the Philippines alone it is estimated that there are 3,000 to 7,000 collectors and about 25 major exporters. The chain of custody also includes importers and retailers, mostly in the United States, Europe and Japan. In the United States, the marine aquarium industry includes about 30 major importers and an estimated 5,000 retailers.

It is the end consumer---that is, the individual aquarist or public aquarium---whose purchasing choices will ultimately determine the success of MAC Certification. MAC is actively working to inform aquarium enthusiasts around the world about the issues surrounding the marine aquarium trade and the role of MAC Certification to conserve reefs and ensure healthy organisms.

The various links in the chain of custody are addressed in four sets of international standards. The Ecosystem and Fishery Management (EFM) Standard covers the management of the collection area. The Collection, Fishing and Holding (CFH) Standard covers the operations of collectors. The Handling, Husbandry and Transport (HHT) Standard covers the facilities and operations of exporters, importers and retailers. In the future, breeders will be covered by the Mariculture and Aquaculture Standard.

Key aspects of the Ecosystem and Fishery Management Standard include defining the collection area, developing and implementing a management plan, recording harvests, harvest methods and other uses of the area and monitoring the health of the reef and status of the fish stocks. MAC encourages the inclusion of no-take marine protected areas in the collection area management plans.

Key aspects of the Collection, Fishing and Holding Standard include using only non-destructive collection methods, trained staff and equipment in good condition; collecting only what is ordered; keeping logbooks; and employing best practices in post-harvest handling. For example, at the MAC Certified Batasan collection area, fish are screened before being placed in an at-sea holding pen. Fish that are the wrong size, scratched or show signs of being unhealthy are released.

Key aspects of the Handling, Husbandry and Transport Standard include using appropriate acclimation, screening, packing and shipping methods; monitoring and recording mortality and water quality; using chemicals responsibly (for example, for disease control); and maintaining documentation (such as, orders, invoices, mortality rates and dispatch records) in order to trace the source and chain of custody of each organism.

For the marine aquarium hobbyist, MAC Certification verifies that the organisms being sold to you are healthy. MAC Certified organisms are harvested from areas managed to maintain reef health and productivity; held and transported in ways to minimize stress and mortality; and handled only by MAC Certified facilities and operators to ensure an unbroken chain of quality. MAC Certification also verifies that the businesses you deal with are responsible. MAC Certified companies have trained staff, appropriate facilities, and operational practices that comply with the MAC Standards.

MAC utilizes independent, third-party certifiers to ensure that MAC Certified organisms and facilities live up to the MAC Standards. These MAC accredited certifiers assess companies for their initial compliance with the MAC Standards, and they conduct scheduled and unscheduled surveillance visits to monitor continued adherence to the Standards.

MAC is often asked if MAC Certified marine ornamentals will cost more. After all, companies seeking certification incur costs to be assessed by a certifier, to use the MAC label and, if needed, to upgrade their facilities to meet the MAC Standards. On the other hand, MAC Certification reduces organism mortality, reduces the number of low-end fish that companies must handle and reduces the quarantine and recovery costs for stressed and sick animals. The bottomline is there likely may be no added cost to hobbyists to buy MAC Certified marine ornamentals even though they get significant added benefits.

We hope this presentation has convinced you of the benefits of MAC Certification to you as an aquarist and to the future of the marine aquarium trade and hobby. If you are interested in MAC Certified organisms, please look on the MAC website at http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/ to find a list of companies that are certified and a list of those that are committed to becoming certified. Then visit a certified company and look for the tanks with the “Marine Aquarium Council Certified” label and ask to see the company’s list of MAC Certified organisms.

You are the key to the future of the industry and the hobby. The more you ask for MAC Certified products and services, the more the industry will work to supply them. The more you inform others about MAC Certification—through your organization’s website, publications and meetings as well as your own personal conversations and online chats—the more others will demand MAC Certified products and services too. Together we can ensure the health of the marine aquarium hobby and industry, as well as the health of marine ornamentals and the reefs from which they come.

For more information on the Marine Aquarium Council, please visit our website at http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/ or send an email to info@aquariumcouncil.org. Thank you.

Comments

Let me start of by saying that I understand there are many concerns out there about who MAC is, how it operates, what it's intentions are, how the Standards and Certification developed and are developing. Concerns about MAC that arise out of concerns for the health and future of coral reefs, aquarium animals, the marine aquarium industry, and the marine aquarium hobby. I understand the feeling that there is not enough information, exchange or feedback between the MAC Secretariat (which was only one person for the first several years of MAC's existence) and that this leads to frustration of not being heard, and that we are not taking the time to understand the issues or respond to them. As we now have a few people on the MAC Secretariat staff, we have been looking at more ways to improve the level of outreach.

Over the past few months we had been looking to set up a permanent MAC Question and Answer Bulletin Board on the MAC website. This has proved more complicated and expensive than we thought. We are now talking to reefs.org and others about the possibility of both having a regular MAC Bulletin Board where people can post their questions, and having a regular MAC internet Question and Answer session like this one, perhaps every 3 months.

It's important to understand that there are a lot of people from a lot of different points of view that are involved in MAC. You hear us use the term "multi-stakeholder" a lot, and may think this is some vague or evasive reference to no one in particular. In fact, it refers to the very real range of groups and individuals that MAC deals with on a daily basis, with literally hundreds of pieces of communication (email, fax, phone calls) from around the world each day. You have seen the general list of stakeholders: e.g. Industry, collectors, hobbyists, conservation organizations, public aquariums, governments. My point is - that to develop a set of guidelines for best practice (the Standards) and a system of objective verification (the Certification) that can be accepted by this wide range of interests and views requires negotiation and compromise. There will be difficulties and problems as part of this process. Not everyone will be happy with all aspects of MAC at all times. However, if we can work together towards our common goal of a sustainable and responsible trade and hobby and sustainable and healthy reefs, stocks and collector's communities - we can get there. Certification is a significant tool for moving in that direction, but it is not the perfect solution nor the answer to all the issues.

With that being said, I am open to any and all questions that are put forward. I will answer them honestly. I will answer them as clearly as possible.

Questions and Answers

If large wholesalers meet the DOA guidelines by following their "get it in get it out" method of doing business, how does this help the hobby? If they quarantine and hold fish, they all admit they will not meet the guildines, at least all I have talked to personally.

Thanks for the question (and all that follow). First, it's important to note that in response to concerns raised about DOA and holding time in the Standards, we worked with the indusry and others to revisit and revise aspects of these issues. So I hope you are refering to the situation in the "Interpretation Document" that was posted w/in the last month. The wholesalers are required to keep the animals for a minimum number of days to ensure their acclimation. If the batch has excessive mortality, this is a minimum of 3 days.

Can you clarify for the hobbyists here what the current DOA policy is and how you expect it to work?

Consistently attaining the mortality requirements of the MAC Standards for many species now in trade is a long-term but fundamental goal. Until the MAC Certification has been operating for some time along the entire chain of custody, consistent compliance with the mortality requirements of the MAC Core Standards for many of the species in trade, especially fish, may take several years. The interpretation of the MAC Standard regarding organism mortality is thus one of measured flexibility towards the goal of 1% DOA and 1% DAA mortality requirement. Maintaining the certified status of a species batch is based on a cumulative DOA + DAA mortality allowance.

The mortality allowance is related to species batch size as per ...
1-5 organisms 0 organisms
6-20 organisms 1 organism
21-100 organisms 2 organisms
101-200 organisms 4 organisms
201-300 organisms 6 organisms

After 5 days at a MAC Certified facility, and if the cumulative mortality allowance for maintaining certified status has not been exceeded, a MAC Certified organism will remain MAC Certified until sold.

How do they know how long the wholesalers keep fish?

The focus is on the health of the fish, primarily measured by mortality of the batch. If there is low mortality and the batch can continue to be considered certified, the time held is less of an issue. Good qualilty fish that were caught and handled properly and maintain certified status can pass through the system relatively quickly. If there are problems, the retailer sends shipping performance reports and the seller is required to respond to this as well as keep documents on the dates when batches come in and out.

Good quality fish that were caught and handled IMPROPERLY can pass through the system quickly too -- how can MAC guarantee that the collectors who are certified TODAY, aren't using cynide? I don't think MAC can make such a guarantee.

Let's talk about these 2 issues: 1) handling and 2) cyanide use:

Re handling: a significant portion of the CFH and most of the HHT Standards address handling and husbandry related issues. There had been no international performance "norms" set for these. So this has been a big job in itself. For example, collectors and facilties must have shown and proved their operations and the documentation systems for tracking their compliance. These cover water quality, acclimation, pH, packaging, declared shipping time, staff training, etc. There is no "guarantee", but with this there is system of tracking and checking perfromance according to these norms. When there are problems, these can be traced. This has already happened during our testing of the system, where problems with an importer were traced back to the collectors and exporter not sticking w the required holding practices.

Ok, now re cyanide use. Documenting mortality, ensuring traceability and having cyanide detection methods are the basis for ensuring as much as possible that cyanide is not being used. With certification the non-use of cyanide becomes part of a larger context of responsible fishing practices, i.e. one of a range of practices for which individual fishers need to take responsibility for their personal behavior and be able to be held accountable for. This requires a means of verification to ensure that non-certifiable practices, e.g. cyanide use, are not being employed. As we gained experience with fishers and their communities, it became more evident that with certification the behavior of fishers is more likely to be effected by a developing and implementing a combination of the following strategies:

1. · Individual responsibility of collectors: With certification, fishers are required to use logbooks to document their catch and have this reviewed by the collector's coordinator. Each collector's catch is identified to the individual. The quality and acceptability is evaluated both by the collectors' coordinator and at the exporter. Unacceptable fish are linked to the individual whose collection and/or handling resulted in the quality of the animal.

2. · Peer pressure: The collector's are certified as a group (usually they form an association to get the group certified), linking the group to the continued performance and compliance of each member. If one member is violating the standards, the continued certification of the whole group (and their access to the improved market and its benefits) is at risk.

3. · Community involvement: The development of the Collection Area Management Plan (CAMP) for EFM compliance is a multi-stakeholder effort that links the community to the fishery. Involving the community in the success and commitment of the certified fishers though a major community awards ceremony for the fishers that have become certified enhances this. Low technology local government surveillance and enforcement: There is already often a village level system for surveillance and enforcement, e.g. local government fishing permits, fisheries patrols. These are being linked with the certification, e.g. only certified fishers are recognized by the local municipality to fish in the are.

4. · Economic incentives: The financial return and income stability of fishers is improved by supplying the consistent quality that result from certified practices, creating an incentive to continue achieving compliance.For this "basket" of compliance assurance mechanisms to work best, there must be the possibility to link each fisher to the fish that they collect. Cyanide use, as well as inappropriate fishing and handling and holding practices, affect the health of the fish. However, the effects of these may not be evidenced until many days or weeks after the fisher has caught and handled the fish. In addition, we are working with the companies and researchers and govt agencies on cyanide detection technologies that are appropriate to the situation. This is in support of the Standards' indication that cyanide detection will be a part of the Certification.

Will certification be allowed prior to the instigation of cyanide testing?

This is a key point. There has been a cyanide detection test (CDT) in use in the Philippines. This was reviewed by an experts panel. The primary need is for a CDT that is verified by an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) accredited laboratory. Also, there is a need for the CDT methods to be peer-reviewed in the int'l science literture. In this start up phase of MAC Certification, we had hoped that the existing methods would meet these int'l criteria and thus be able to be approved by the MAC Standards Committee. Unfortunately, the existing methods that are out there have not responded to this opportunity. So, we are putting the development of a vaild CDT as much higher priority. The points made above, re traceability and mortality monitoring and reporting provivde a "net" of reasonable safeguards at this early point. In the meantime, some collectors and industry have wanted to move forward with the standards that were approved. We have been undertaking collectors skills tests (e.g. ability to catch difficult species w nets), random visits, and cross checking collector and buyer's records.

The questioner would like a "yes" or "no" answer to the previous question (Will certification be allowed prior to the instigation of cyanide testing?).

Yes, certification is taking place now, as has been announced in the newsletter.

Aquarium Habitat, and exporter in the Philippines, was either the first exporter or one of the first exporters certified. She has put a lot of time, effort, and money into the process. It is now public knowledge that she is very disappointed with the way MAC is currently operating in the Philippines- not having enough collection areas certified to insure the variety of fish necessary, gearing up to certify exporters that carry cyanide caught fish, and encouraging exporters to mix certified fish with uncertified fish to boost their business. How do you respond to this?

First, as soon as I got the letter last Saturday, I phoned Marivi to talk thru the issues and have phoned her everday this week to talk about this. Let's take the issues one by one.

1) not enough certified supply. We have been working with as many collection areas as we can with the resources we have. The work at the community level has proved to be much more involved than expected. The work involves community development to create management areas and management plans, assessing the state of the reefs, as well as the training of collectors in collection, husbandry, handling etc in November 2001, six collection areas and collector groups were identified as primary candidates for MAC Certification. Training at these sites was expanded to include development of a collection area management plan, post-harvest handling and documentation 3 collection areas were initially evaluated for certification in 3rd quarter 2002. Two did not pass (indicating that the certification is robust and the independent certifier does not pass those who do not comply) There are many preparing themselves for seeking certification:

Philippines:
- about 6 collection area communities/collectors associations.
- likely to have a certifier visit.
- somewhere between 4 and 11 exporters.
- to my knowledge they have made no definitive arrangements for a certifier visit.

Our highest priority is training of collectors and working w collector's villages. We have partners in this and are develioing new partnerships.

2) Re mixing fish:
Since there is a very limited supply of certified fish in the early days (e.g. there is currently only one source of certified fish), companies will likely be handling both certified and non-certified fish. This is why 2 key components of the HHT Standard are: 1) ensuring segregation of certified and non-certified animals; 2) maintaining the traceability of a batches. MAC Certification does not dictate from whom a MAC Certified organization must purchase its marine aquarium organisms. It does require that MAC Certified organisms are clearly identified and kept segregated from non-certified organisms. There are many collectors who do not use cyanide who are not MAC Certified. The use of nets in lieu of cyanide is only one of the many requirements that a collector must meet to become MAC Certified. MAC Certified organizations can choose to purchase organisms from these non-certified net fishermen.Certification can only verify the health and sustainability of organisms that are caught from MAC Certified collection areas by MAC Certified collectors.

Due to the volume of responses from participants, Paul could not answer all of the questions due to time restraints. Because we feel that every question deserves to be answered, we asked Paul to address them in the Speaker's forum. In this forum we took it upon ourselves and posted the remaining questions.

Thanks for the great talk, Paul!

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