The Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) announces a substantial review of its sustainability standard for responsible capture, trade and farming in the European eel.

The main aims of the review will be to simplify the standard and assessment against it, leading to greater understanding and better implementation of the SEG certification scheme.

The review will aim to be ready for the next glass eel fishing season in November 2026 and will involve full consultation with stakeholders during 2026.

More details on the process and timetable are available here.

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Objectives

The SEG Standard will continue to set the benchmark as a Best Practice Code of Conduct for a Responsible Eel Sector.  Specific aims in this improvement are:

• To make the standard simpler, clearer and less ambiguous to interpret and audit.

• To make it more accessible and to more operators.

• To enable the certification scheme to be compatible with being accredited to ISO17065 in the future.

• To follow the procedures outlined in our 102 SEG Standard Development & Revision procedure.

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Consultation

Stakeholders are invited to comment on the current standard by 9 April 2026.  All improvements will be incorporated into a new draft which will be published for consultation during the summer.

To comment, please see here.

It is aimed for the new standard to be available in November 2026.

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Transition

The current certification scheme will continue until the next standard is in place.  Existing certificates will be valid until they are due to expire at which point the new version of the standard will be applied. 

Extensions to existing certificates will be provided where necessary to ensure that there are no inadvertent gaps in certification.

Exact transition arrangements are being developed and will be announced soon.