Saving Seafood

MSC announces USD 6.4 million investment in fishery sustainability fund

June 18, 2025 — Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chief Executive Rupert Howes has announced that the organization will make a USD 6.4 million (EUR 5.6 million) investment in its Ocean Stewardship Fund by 2030.

Since its inception in 2019, the Ocean Stewardship Fund has channeled USD 8.8 million (EUR 7.7 million) into over 200 fisheries and projects worldwide, nearly 90 of which were in developing economies. The fund’s main goal is to end overfishing, but it also supports a wide variety of initiatives that make fisheries more sustainable.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Workers’ rights campaign continues push for Wi-Fi on distant-water fishing vessels

March 25, 2025 — Silwanus, an Indonesian migrant fisher, was working aboard the Marine Stewardship Council-certified (MSC) Taiwanese distant-water vessel Chang Yi No. 368 in 2024 when a refrigerator door slammed shut during a big wave and severed his fingertips. 

“My fingers are gone. If help would have been there right away, maybe my fingers would not be lost,” he told SeafoodSource through translator Truly Walean during the 2025 Seafood Expo North America (SENA), which ran from 16 to 18 March.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MSC 2025 Small Pelagic Yearbook calls for action on overfished, vulnerable stocks

March 13, 2025 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has published its 2025 Small Pelagics Yearbook, sharing market data, insights, and suggestions for pelagic fisheries’ stakeholders.

The yearbook included a 2024 survey conducted by MSC and Globescan that found consumers are highly concerned with the fate of the world’s oceans, with 91 percent saying that they are worried about the issue and nearly 70 percent saying they are willing to change their behaviors to protect fish and seafood in the future.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska’s salmon fishery passes MSC audits, marking 25 years of certification

February 18, 2025 — The Alaskan salmon fishery has met all Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard requirements related to its hatcheries after a recent audit, allowing it to continue possessing its certification.

MRAG Americas, an independent assessment body, determined Alaska’s salmon fishery met the MSC’s hatchery management standards, which include comprehensive marking of hatchery-produced salmon to track the origin of fish to certain hatcheries. The tracking is designed to allow fishery managers to assess and regulate fishery contributions and interactions between hatchery salmon and wild salmon.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska Salmon Fishery Closes Hatchery-Related Conditions on Marine Stewardship Council Certificate in Latest Audit

February 14, 2025 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Alaska salmon fishery has successfully met all Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Standard requirements related to hatcheries, according to a recent audit by independent assessment body MRAG Americas. This achievement was possible through dedicated efforts by the Alaska Fishery Development Foundation, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) Commercial Fisheries Division and Alaska Private Non-Profit Hatchery Corporations and reinforces Alaska’s commitment to environmentally sustainable fishing under MSC certification.

A Legacy of Sustainability
Alaska has a long history of demonstrated success in sustainable management of wild salmon runs as a constitutionally mandated priority. Alaska salmon fisheries have been MSC-certified for 25 years, making them one of the longest-running certificate holders. Through annual audits and five-year recertifications, these fisheries consistently meet MSC’s globally recognized standards for sustainable fish stocks, ecosystem protection, and effective management. In November 2024, the fishery was recertified, marking a quarter-century of engagement in the MSC program.
Advancements in Hatchery Research & Management
In collaboration with the ADF&G, Alaska fisheries have implemented comprehensive marking of hatchery production salmon in order to track the origin of fish to certain hatcheries and to assess and regulate fishery contributions and hatchery-wild interactions. The MSC audit confirmed that Alaska’s hatchery management practices and strategies align with wild salmon conservation policies, ensuring long-term sustainability.
Science-Driven Conservation
The State of Alaska Hatchery Research Project, led by ADF&G and a panel of state, federal, and academic scientists, played a key role in evaluating hatchery-wild salmon interactions. The latest MSC audit reaffirmed that wild salmon populations continue to thrive, maintaining the necessary genetic integrity to remain productive into the future.
Global Market Trust
MSC certification provides third-party verification of sustainability, ensuring continued access to key global markets that require rigorous environmental standards. This milestone highlights the cooperative efforts of Alaska’s salmon fisheries and ADF&G to uphold sustainable, science-based fisheries management.

Multiple labor activists send letter to MSC demanding action on labor abuse in seafood industry

February 12, 2025 — A group of labor activist organizations have sent an open letter to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pushing the seafood certifier to do more to combat forced labor incidents.

The letter was sent by the Seafood Working Group (SWG), a coalition of labor rights groups comprising Global Labor Justice, International Transport Workers’ Federation, Humanity United, Freedom Fund, and Greenpeace US. The letter said the MSC needs to do more to combat “rampant labor abuse” in the seafood industry, and criticized the MSC’s stance on the ecolabel not offering assurances that there is no forced or child labor within its fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NGOs Warn That Sustainable Seafood Label May Hide High-Seas Labor Abuses

February 11, 2025 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) finds itself under fire again over its vetting standards, this time for allegedly overlooking the use of forced labor in overseas fisheries. A coalition of environmental and labor NGOs has called on MSC to acknowledge that its label may not be “fit for purpose” for evaluating labor standards in the complex, opaque seafood supply chain.

Labor exploitation is a fact of life in a segment of the global fishing fleet, and its ubiquity and ease of concealment out on the high seas make it a challenge to exclude from the supply chain. At least 128,000 fishermen are subjected to forced labor conditions worldwide, according to conservative estimates by the International Labor Organization, and the agency believes the real number is likely higher.

In an open letter, a coalition led by Global Labor Justice asserted that MSC’s certification program is not combating that challenge, and may be impeding efforts to fight labor abuses. The NGOs cited a 2024 study of MSC’s vetting program for the tuna industry, which found that about half of MSC’s tuna fishery certificates “appeared to lack any form of information on vessel ownership,” and that just four percent of MSC tuna certificate holders appeared to own any tuna vessels. The overwhelming majority of the certified companies were market intermediaries, without direct involvement in vessel operations, and MSC’s labor compliance check process relied largely on self-declaration.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Global seafood collaboration updates sustainability data, human rights analysis tool

January 28, 2025 –Amid a seafood sustainability landscape that features several databases, regulations, and benchmarks to measure progress, it can be difficult for retailers, fishers, and other players up and down the seafood supply chain to find consistent data on sustainability and align their processes accordingly.

Aiming to alleviate that issue, the Certification and Ratings Collaboration – a collaboration between some of the world’s most prominent seafood certification programs, including the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Marine Stewardship Council, Fair Trade USA, and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program – recently released an updated version of its data tool.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MarinTrust, MSC sign agreement to strengthen collaboration in marine ingredient supply chain

December 16, 2024 — MarinTrust and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in an attempt to streamline the certification processes between both organizations.

The agreement between MarinTrust, a London, U.K.-based certification program working to improve sourcing and traceability across global marine ingredient production, and the MSC is intended to improve how marine ingredient producers engage with one another, reducing duplicative tasks within both certification schemes and aligning standards across the sector.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska salmon recertified to MSC standard after independent adjudicator rejects NGO concerns

November 18, 2024 — The salmon fishery in the U.S. state of Alaska has received recertification to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard after an independent adjudicator rejected objections from conservation groups.

MSC recently announced the Alaska salmon fishery’s fifth certification, marking 25 years the fishery has been engaged with the certification standard.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource