No single aspect is more important, or more central, to the sustainability program of Clover Leaf Seafoods than ensuring the responsible management of fisheries from which we source.

Clover Leaf Seafoods is a founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF).
ISSF is a partnership of scientists, the tuna industry, environmental champions, and charitable foundations that researches, shares, and advocates for best practices in sustainable fishing and whose participating companies make commitments to adhere to ISSF sourcing policies.

ISSF’s goal is to undertake science-based initiatives for the long-term sustainability of tuna stocks, reduction of by-catch and promotion of ecosystem health, and improve all tuna fisheries to meet the strict sustainability certification standards.

We supply products from sustainable, well managed, healthy fisheries and from areas that have action plans to return the fishery to a thriving state and follow ISSF’s best practices and independent science-based research data to validate our approach.

A critical component in demonstrating transparency and compliance with ISSF resolutions is the third party audit of member companies. These audits are conducted by the Marine Resource Assessment Group (MRAG) – Americas and evaluate company performance in meeting ISSF resolutions in a number of critical areas.

Clover Leaf Seafood’s audit results were once again outstanding with no non-conformances noted. We believe this is representative of our concerted efforts to ensure all products reaching the market comply with ISSF commitments, we are proud of our results and we will continue to drive to maintain the highest standard!

Click here to view our 2020 Audit Report

Clover Leaf’s overarching commitment to sustainable seafood is for all its products to be externally recognized as sustainable or in a formal program moving towards certification by 2025. Click on the Sustainability Certification Goals table to the right to view our specific goals for each species. Clover Leaf has a full chain traceability policy that it applies to all products to support its commitment.

We also seek third-party recognition and certification of the fisheries from which we source, and work to continuously improve fisheries through Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) and direct partnerships. We rely on recognized certification systems that have been validated by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI). Governed by a Steering Board representing the full seafood value chain, companies, NGOs, governments, and international organizations – including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – GSSI evaluates certification systems and develops benchmarking tools to improve sustainable seafood assessments and claims. GSSI recognized certification schemes include the Marine Stewardship Council (MCS), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standards and others.

All Clover Leaf Wild Salmon are already sourced from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries. Our light Tuna will be sourced from MSC certified fisheries by 2022. Our Oysters and Mussels will carry ASC certified certification in 2022.

All of Clover Leaf’s tuna products on the shelf today are dolphin friendly and the labels on our products proudly show the “dolphin friendly” symbol.

Dolphin Safe and Dolphin Friendly Safe are used interchangeably, and mean that:

• Drift nets are not used.
• There are no purse seine sets made on dolphins through an entire fishing trip.
• No accidental kills or serious injuries to dolphins during purse seine fishing sets.

Our Commitment

We will mitigate and reduce bycatch through a combination of sourcing objectives, utilization of best practices and innovation.

Our Progress

We are supporting the extensive work on Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) done by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation – covering both FADs that reduce bycatch and biodegradable FADs (bamboo and cloth construction) that reduce the impact of beaching and debris.

Looking Ahead

We are in dialogue with NGOs, collaborative groups, and scientific organizations to expand these programs.

Best Practices

We use a number of best practices in longline and purse seine fishing, including;

• Circle hooks: Difficult for non-target species to swallow and less harmful to released fish
• Deep sets: Reduces accidental capture of surface level animals
• Skipper training: Specialized in proper handling practices
• Monofilament leads: Reduces capture of sharks
• Bird scaring: Reduces interactions and harm to sea birds
• Shark finning prohibited: A policy since 2012
• Fin fish for bait: Reduces interactions with sea turtles and sone sharks
• Non-entangling Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs): Reduces marine animal entanglement

Clover Leaf Seafoods is committed to creating a healthier marine ecosystems by reducing bycatch and addressing the impact of oceans plastics, particularly ghost gear. Ghost gear is lost or discarded fishing gear that accumulates in the oceans. Clover Leaf Seafoods does not engage in the fishing methods at highest risk for ghost gear, but any commercial fishing has an impact and we wish to do our part in finding solutions.

In 2018, we joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. The Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) is a cross-sectoral alliance committed to ensuring safer, cleaner oceans by driving economically viable and sustainable solutions to the problem of ghost fishing gear globally. We are supporting a project in Indonesia to develop ocean-safe tracking mechanisms to find and collect lost and abandoned fishing equipment and incentivize their collection and reuse.

We are committed to ensuring the safe and fair treatment of all who are connected to our business, and we expect the same commitment from our suppliers. That includes obeying all laws, promoting the health and safety of all workers, and ensure our suppliers and tuna fleets, from which we source, actively participate in FCF’s social audit programs and meet our standards of conduct. We recently expanded the program to include a “Worker Voice” system for vessels that our company sources product from.

Our Commitment:
By 2025, all tuna fleets that Clover Leaf Seafoods purchases from will be covered by an audit program with third-party oversight.

Our Progress:
Our social audit program includes extensive training, a risk-based screening approach, third party audits covering tuna vessels and program management, along with multiple approaches to ensure effective Worker Voice components.

The Worker’s Voice platform gives fishermen the opportunity to provide feedback on their working environment and tuna vessel compliance. Since May 2021, we are also working with an NGO to roll out an anonymous compliant mechanism where crew members are able to file anonymous complaints with NGOs via the platform.

Looking Ahead:
These programs allow us to identify and mitigate communication gaps between fishing companies, recruitment agencies and the crew members. While technology can only support such processes to make them more efficient, effective, and transparent, we know the credibility of these social programs will depend on diligent oversight and 3^rd party audit verification.

Click here to view our 2020 Supplier Code of Conduct