ATuna, September 7 2022
Full paper – Download
One of the requirements for gaining MSC certification is that certified fisheries must be harvested at sustainable levels. The MSC, therefore, claims that certified fisheries are expected to be more sustainable than those without certification. A recent paper in Frontiers in Marine Science, co-authored by the Marine Stewardship Council and the University of Washington shows that MSC-certified fisheries have a higher relative abundance than non-MSC-certified populations.
The authors conclude that the study confirms that MSC certification is a credible indicator that the marine fish and invertebrate populations targeted by certified fisheries meet a highly regarded set of best-practice requirements around sustainable fishing.
Our thoughts: It is important to note the limitations of this study in evaluating the overall credibility and efficacy of the MSC as a certification. While this study shows that MSC-certified stocks are overall more abundant than those without certification, the wider impact of these fisheries such as rates of bycatch, and impacts on the wider ecosystem are not included in this study and as such completely disregarded when describing the sustainability of a fishery.
