Marine Aquarium Council Certification Prep Kit
Launch of the Marine Aquarium Council Certification Preparation Kit
The Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) would like to invite you to join them to help ensure the future of the marine aquarium hobby, the professional trade and the health of marine aquarium organisms.
As an independent, not-for-profit organization, MAC has worked with its diverse international stakeholders to create international standards for the marine ornamental trade, with a certification and labeling system. Aquarists can now identify responsible industry operators that comply with these standards and provide MAC Certified organisms that are marketable as MAC Certified subsequent to the certification of their facilities.
After the launch of the MAC international Standards in 2001, many industry operators have successfully become MAC Certified. It was in 2002, that the first importers in Europe and first importers and retailers in North America achieved MAC certification. As of the beginning of 2007, more than sixty (60) industry operators are MAC Certified worldwide.
Our sales of MAC Certified animals grew significantly in 2006, and we look forward to offering a broader range of certified fish this year. Two of our best supply lines have been MAC Certified, meaning that these sources have been identified as to employing Best Practices in their respective operations, the implementation of collection area management plans, and that the quality of their animals sold through us with the MAC Certified Label are compliant with MAC standards. To ease the certification process for retailers, MAC has also developed a concise, clear, and easy to follow certification preparation kit to guide retailers through the certification and process.
MAC has developed this information kit to assist the increasing number of industry retailers interested in becoming MAC Certified in the most time and cost efficient manner as possible and better serve the industry's needs. This responds to the necessity for a tool kit designed for companies willing to become MAC Certified under the MAC Handling, Husbandry and Transport (HHT) international Standard. The HHT Certification Preparation Kit provides companies with the materials to get started with their certification process as well as to prepare them for a certification assessment by a third-party MAC Accredited certifier, without the necessity of visits by a MAC representative.
The Certification Preparation Kit targets the different users of the MAC HHT international Standard, and most particularly importers and retailers.
This kit includes:
- A general background information fact sheet about MAC and its certification system.
- An introduction to the certification process.
- A self-assessment questionnaire and model templates.
- Reference information about MAC Accredited certifiers and the MAC HHT international Standard.
This kit guides companies through the certification process with a description of all the steps to be taken. Using the self-assessment questionnaire, companies can easily review whether they have all the necessary policies and procedures in place, and determine their compliance with the requirements of the MAC HHT international Standard. When the questionnaire is completed, the company can contact MAC with the results, thus giving the opportunity for a MAC representative to carry out a gap analysis and recommend corrective action to be taken in order to help ensure compliance with the MAC HHT international Standard when then formal third-party assessment takes place. The process of self-assessing and follow up corrective action may be repeated until all non-conformities are addressed and the MAC representative can recommend the company for certification. During this process, MAC treats all submitted information confidentially.
For more information about receiving the HHT Certification Preparation Kit, please send an email request to MAC at info@aquariumcouncil.org.