Currently more vessels are participating in the Clean Green program than at any stage since first introduced in 2004. Re-aligning Clean Green to address new and changing legislative requirements has been the key driver for the increased support from industry. The process of revising the program content and on-going dialogue with regulators has identified that Clean Green must / will continue to be an evolving program to address regulatory changes and update the program content. Therefore a project is required to deliver a digitised operationally focussed, benchmark responsible fishing standard including support and auditing materials for the Australian seafood industry that will:
• Improve ongoing program administration (as regulators e.g. SWSA, AMSA and DAWR, continue to change and update relevant legislative requirements, the maintenance of a paper-based program will become unsustainable.
• Extend the Clean Green program into the post-harvest sector of the supply chain and provide a medium for SRL to ‘extend’ relevant outputs from other R&D in which the industry has invested to interested businesses e.g. traceability and ‘lobster health’.
• Improve communications and audit procedures with / for the Clean Green Auditor to streamline and reduce cost of independent third-party auditing processes
• Generate usable data for relevant regulators and seek their recognition / accreditation of the program and further opportunities for Clean Green to serve as a tool for industry self-regulation.
• Streamline program management and financial control of the program e.g. invoicing, scheduling of auditing, raising and closing out of Corrective Action Requests (CARs), physical auditing of vessels, communication with members, improved efficiency and effectiveness of Clean Green training and refresher training.
• Increase the transferability of the Clean Green ‘product’ to other catching sectors. This may aid with generating greater economies of scale and assist the Clean Green Program, and its management, to become financially self-sustaining to a greater degree.
Final report
First introduced in 2004, the Southern Rocklobster Limited Clean Green Program was developed as an integrated pot-to-plate Product Standard with independent third-party auditing of practices. During the period 2013 to 2015 the Clean Green Program was considerably updated for the first time to address the introduction of AMSA’s National Standard for Commercial Vessels, resulting in greater industry adoption with approx. 60% increase in vessel use across the 3-year period. The re-alignment of the Clean Green Program to address new and changing legislative requirements e.g. the introduction of the National Standard Commercial Vessels by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and new Work, Health & Safety requirements, had been the key driver for the increased support from industry. This highlighted the need for the Clean Green Program to continue to evolve to address regulatory changes and, accordingly, the required updating of program content (in consultation with Regulators). This project was required to adapt 21st century technology to deliver a digitised, operationally focussed, Clean Green Program that can be more efficiently updated and disseminated to industry.
