A lot of people who don’t want to feel guilty about eating seafood will look for the MSC logo. The MSC (or Marine Stewardship Council) supposedly certifies sustainable fisheries. They aim to reward good fisheries management by providing access to niche markets (the same markets concerned with their bread slicers) and the lure of higher profits (although this hasn’t seemed to happen so far). Four recent events reveal the fishiness of MSC-certification — a process many fisheries scientists supported at its inception but now doubt.
Daniel Pauly and I have an article out today at the Vancouver-based Tyee on why the proposed MSC-certification of Peruvian anchovy is a bad idea. Whether or not the fish is caught sustainably is beside the point. The real issue, in this case, is what is done with the fish after they are caught–and, in the case of the anchovy, these tasty little fish are turned into fishmeal to feed factory-farmed fish or pigs and chickens (animals that shouldn’t be eating fish to begin with). It’s like certifying wood as sustainable and then turning it into mulch.
Next up, our old friend pollock–a fish that makes its way into the McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish and a fish that dons the MSC seal of approval. However, according to this recent article in the Economist, the pollock fishery is also in dire Bering straits. Friends at Greenpeace (who never approved of the MSC-certification due to the fact that the certification ignored ecosystem effects, such as how much pollock sea lions in the area need for food) heard that pollock stock assessments are so low that under the fishery rules, the pollock fishery should be shut down for next season. If one of the best managed or most heavily managed fisheries in the world shuts down, what does that say for management? And what does it say for the MSC?