2025 Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark
December 2025, Edition 4
Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) has launched the fourth edition of the Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark. In 2025, the report evaluated 9 certification schemes and 2 rating agencies, providing a comprehensive overview of how welfare commitments are currently embedded across leading global standards.
The Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark remains the only global, evidence-based tool dedicated to evaluating the strength and clarity of animal welfare language within aquaculture certification and rating frameworks.
Beyond producing a comparative ranking, the Benchmark functions as a constructive accountability and improvement tool, effectively encouraging certifiers to strengthen their welfare standards.
Over the years, an increase in animal welfare standards was observed among most evaluated schemes.
For the fourth edition, ALI introduced key methodological and scope adjustments — including Transport as a new criterion, recognizing its critical role in aquatic animal welfare, and the expansion of core prohibitions such as the use of GMOs for accelerated growth and productivity.
Through a set of sub-criteria, the Benchmark assesses the degree to which certifiers explicitly integrate water quality, stocking density, environmental enrichment, feed composition, transport, and stunning and slaughter into their welfare standards. The final score also accounts for prohibitions on octopus farming, shrimp eyestalk ablation, use of insects in aquafeed and use of GMOs.
In 2025, Certified Humane® achieved the highest score in the Benchmark with 8.75 points. Other certifiers ASC and RSPCA tied for second place at 7.75 points, reflecting continued advancement.
Explore the 2025 Benchmark to find out how each certifier achieved its score and how ratings are tracking year over year!
For further details, access full evaluations here.
Certifiers evaluated in the 2025 Benchmark
