Measuring our impact

The ASC acts so that aquaculture produces more fish for more people with the most responsible environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

Our impact Measuring our impact

At the ASC, we recognise the value in employing effective market mechanisms to drive social and environmental improvements in aquaculture.

We achieve this by monitoring, understanding and communicating our impacts; building and maintaining a rigorous certification programme, bound by science-based standards, robust governance systems, and effective assurance mechanisms; and multiply that impact through our markets & customers, consumers campaigns and collaborations.

Information collected across our programs allows us to monitor and track our growth and progress towards our expected outcomes to demonstrate the change we make.

Monitoring and evaluation

ASC’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system has been designed to demonstrate the transformation of aquaculture towards environmental and social responsibility and measure the impacts of responsible farming practices and increased demand for ASC certification.

The ASC M&E System is communicated through:

our ASC M&E Framework v2.0

and ASC M&E Framework – Appendix A

For more information on M&E at ASC, contact Jill Swasey, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation: Contact

Our approach

Data maintained by our programme are collected through several mechanisms. Third-party audits against ASC standards by conformity assessment bodies develop audit reports are shared publicly on our website. These reports provide detail on production characteristics and compliance with ASC requirements. Data on markets are collected through supply chain activities and logo license agreements.

Collectively, we rely on these data to understand our growth, reach and progress towards our mission, in addition to valuable inputs to research, Standards revisions, and programme learnings and improvements.

ASC maintains several dashboards (link to Demonstrating our Impact) as a part of our commitment to transparency to communicate our impact.

We take our data governance seriously. ASC adheres to strict processes in the privacy (ASC Privacy Policy V1.1), protection of personal data (ASC Data Protection Policy V1.1), and data sharing (Data Sharing Policy).

ASC programme data may be available on request

The Producer Data Submission Portal can be accessed here

Any data related terminology is defined in the ASC Vocabulary Portal

For more information on data and sharing at ASC, contact data@asc-aqua.org

Research strategy

Standing out as a leader in research and collaborating within the community is critical to progressing towards ASC’s mission.

The ASC Research Agenda covers a range of topics and research questions that are currently most relevant to us. If these align with your areas of interest and you’d like to discuss potential collaboration opportunities, please contact Kathrin Steinberg, Head of Research: contact

Theory of Change

ASC certified seafood is raised to meet the highest standards for environmentally and socially responsible practices. ASC traceability controls ensure the provenance of certified farmed seafood.

ASC acts in the marketplace to increase the awareness, value, demand, and distribution of ASC certified seafood. As demand grows, there is an incentive for producers to pursue the recognition and reward that ASC certification offers. As more producers achieve certification, more seafood is farmed responsibly.

This process leads to an aquaculture system that produces more fish for more people with the most responsible environmental stewardship and social responsibility.