The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label, the most recognized seafood sustainability eco-label, is increasingly being awarded to fisheries that routinely catch thousands of vulnerable marine animals; discard excessive amounts of sealife as waste; irreversibly destroy sea floor habitats; and continue to catch overfished species.

We are calling for urgent and swift changes to the MSC certification standard in order to uphold the scientific rigour, transparency, and original vision of the seafood label as well as its promise to consumers and retailers that it is the ‘gold standard of sustainability’.

A growing number of marine conservation organizations, leading academics and researchers, animal protection organizations, and individuals working towards sustainable seafood options have joined this call and undertaken analyses to advise MSC on specific changes needed to the certification.

See all partners below.

Open Letter

We sent an open letter to the MSC on January 19th, 2018 and look forward to working with MSC to move swiftly to address the flaws in the certification standard that allow fisheries with widely unacceptable impacts to be certified.

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Case Studies

These MSC certified fisheries have been widely controversial and considered unsustainable by many stakeholders.They demonstrate the imperative for the changes called for above

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Case studies now available in English and German language for download

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Critical requirements to improve the MSC

These required improvements emerge from research and analysis undertaken by non-government organizations and academics focused on marine conservation and seafood certification and are aimed at improving Principle 2 of the MSC Standard as well as the certification procedure to ensure credibility and impartiality. They stem from our involvement as stakeholders in a range of MSC certifications, which have given rise to concerns with the MSC Standard and its application.

To see full technical details of each of the requested changes
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1 Ensure that the full ecological impacts of a certified fishery are assessed and progressively improved and fisheries are not wasteful of marine lives and resources.

2Ensure that the entirety of the certified fishery methods, gear, and catch are sustainable and that all “main species” of a catch are managed equally to the target species.

3Ensure that MSC certified fisheries do not destroy seafloor biodiversity, and that the MSC Standard is consistent with internationally accepted fisheries management standards.

4Ensure that the sustainability claim of MSC certified fisheries is evidence based and transparent for all of the data used for decision making in the assessments and audits of fisheries.

5Ensure that condition-based certification is resolved prior to recertification.

6Ensure that the certification assessment and audit process are impartial.

7The MSC must proactively uphold the scientific rigour and goals of the program.