He admits that the organisation is “not perfect”, and says the level of criticism is “difficult”. “We’re passionate about oceans and marine ecosystems and ocean resilience,” he says, “but we’re also deeply concerned about global food insecurity and indeed the 500m livelihoods the FAO estimate depend on the global seafood industry.” ‘Nothing carries the label without traceability,’ says the MSC. ![]() The Marine Stewardship Council logo on a tin of tuna certified as sustainable seafood. WWF, like MCS and the MBA, draws from the best available scientific data to provide seafood guides of the most sustainable fish to choose in several countries, based on species type. It defines sustainable seafood as that which comes from sources that can maintain or increase production without jeopardising the structure and function of affected ecosystems. An existing certification with MSC can improve the scores.Ī US-based advisory list, along the same traffic-light system as the MCS’s good fish guide. The best scientific advice available is used to create a traffic-light system of ratings from 1-5, in which one is “best choice” and five is “fish to avoid’, based on the health of the population, how fishing is controlled and the effects on the wider environment. The UK-based MCS runs a regularly updated “good fish guide” to advise consumers on which seafood is most sustainable. Marine Conservation Society’s good fish guide To be certified fisheries must submit to and pay for an independent audit. Seafood with a blue tick from the MSC can be traced back to a fishery that is certified as sustainable, based on whether the stock is heathy and well managed and whether the fishery is minimising its impact on other species and the wider ecosystem. The MSC hit the headlines in March, however, when the controversial Netflix documentary Seaspiracy accused it of certifying fisheries with a high level of “bycatch” – whereby species such as dolphins and turtles are caught in fishing nets – and said its certification was too easily achieved. In the absence of governments looking after our oceans, “the MSC is definitely the best we’ve got” in terms of consumer labels, according to Ruth Westcott of the environmental alliance Sustain. In the last year its labelled products were worth $12bn (£9.5bn). The MSC, which grants the right to use its well-known “blue tick” label on products, has grown from 315 certified fisheries in 2017 to 421, representing 14% of all global fish landings. ![]() When a whale gets entangled, ropes from buoys on the surface to the seabed traps can become embedded in its skin, weighing it down and leaving it unable to swim or feed properly, leading to a “really traumatising death”, O’Connell says.īut what makes it even more concerning to conservationists is that some of the fisheries they say threaten the right whale were certified as “sustainable” by the world’s largest fisheries certification programme: the Marine Stewardship Council. “These animals are running the gauntlet – and it’s getting harder and harder for them to survive.” “We’re talking millions of lines, placed in the water every year,” says Kate O’Connell, a marine wildlife consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute. ![]() Months later, unable to swim or feed properly, she was dead. A female North Atlantic right whale entangled in fishing gear in 2010.
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