Saving Seafood

ISSF report finds more tuna stocks are sustainable

July 29, 2024 — A recently released report by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) found the number of tuna stocks meeting Marine Stewardship Council fisheries standards and avoiding overfishing has increased in 2024.

The report, “An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria,” determined 11 of the 23 major commercial tuna stocks worldwide are sufficiently avoiding overfishing and maintaining target stock biomass levels to meet MSC standards. That is an increase from the seven fisheries that met the standard in the ISSF’s report from March 2023.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US senators, fishing industry level criticism at MSC for continued presence in Russia

July 10, 2024 — U.S. senators and key figures in the U.S. seafood industry are criticizing the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) decision to continue allowing Russian fisheries – particularly Russian pollock – to keep their certifications in the face of economic sanctions.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the MSC announced it planned to continue to certify Russian pollock so long as it followed through on a plan to conduct more sustainable fishing. Other areas of the Russian pollock industry would go on to gain further MSC certification, but the MSC added at the time that the ongoing war would impact its certification of Russian fisheries, as some assurance providers’ work in the country became difficult.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Marine Stewardship Council issuing amended Version 3.0 standard in July 2024

June 26, 2024 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) plans to release new technical amendments to its Version 3.0 standard in July 2024 that the organization said will help correct issues with its initial release.

The MSC originally released Version 3.0 in May 2023 after a review process that began in 2018. The review included the participation of over 1,000 stakeholders and was considered one of the most comprehensive reviews ever conducted by the organization.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Op-ed: Human rights issues in the farmed seafood industry and the role of certification

April 23, 2024 — Chris Ninnes is CEO of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and previously served as deputy CEO and director of operations at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

He has been chair of the ISEAL board since 2018 and chair of the Certification and Ratings Collaboration’s (CRC) Steering Committee since its inception in 2015. The Collaboration consists of the ASC, Fair Trade USA, MSC, Seafood Watch, and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, working together to coordinate tools and increase impact so that more seafood producers move along a clear path toward environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Ninnes’ op-ed was originally published on the ASC website.

The recent investigations uncovering human rights abuses in the farmed seafood industry, most recently in the shrimp industry in India, are very unsettling to read. While we all agree that these abuses should have no place in any industry, the reality is more stark and uncomfortable.

Human rights abuses can be found everywhere, and no system alone is perfect at eliminating all of them. The CRC’s data tool, which was originally developed to collate information about the environmental performance of seafood production from member assessments, now contains a global overview of key social metrics related to their occurrence. Shockingly, there is evidence of forced labor, child labor, or human trafficking within 65 percent of the countries assessed that are involved with 98 percent of seafood production. The frequency of these abuses differs by country, but such evidence is much harder to collect.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NAPA study claims Atlanto-Scandian herring fishery could collapse in two years without action

March 2, 2024 — A study commissioned by the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA) indicates the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock in the Northeast Atlantic may be nearing a collapse if steps aren’t taken to halt overfishing.

NAPA is one of the groups behind persistent calls for action to end overfishing of Atlanto-Scandian herring, which has faced severe sustainability issues for multiple years. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) suspended its certification for the species in 2020, and since that time, coastal states have continued to exert more pressure on the stock than the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) recommends.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Marine Stewardship Council Fisheries Head Jay Lugar clarifies revision process for Version 3.0 standard

February 10, 2024 — Jay Lugar is the head of fisheries for the Marine Stewardship Council. In an SeafoodSource interview, Lugar addressed in more detail the problems with MSC’s Version 3.0 standard that have resulted in a delay in its implementation.

On 9 February, activist coalition Make Stewardship Count, which has been sharply critical of the Marine Stewardship Council for years, said it opposed the delay.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

FLORIDA: While fish are plentiful off Wakulla County coast, marine heat waves concern environmental groups elsewhere

December 26, 2023 — The following transcript was released by WTXL:

“The fishing is greater than ever.”

Captain Joel Weir runs a fishing charter that goes around the world and in these waters off Panacea. “The fish we have the grouper the snapper fishing everything is phenomenal.”

He says business is good, but the Marine Stewardship Council tells me they’re concerned about the future of fishing in our oceans.

“They’re experiencing water temperatures that are higher than normal.”

Conagra defends its MSC sustainability labeling as class-action lawsuit continues

October 22, 2023 — Conagra Brands has filed a new brief supporting its motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit claiming the company’s use of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for sustainability claims are “deceptive.”

The lawsuit, filed earlier this year, seeks at least USD 5 million (EUR ) in damages and heavily criticizes both Conagra and the MSC, claiming the sustainability certification organization “blatantly violates its own standards and puts the very ecosystem MSC feigns to protect in serious danger.” Plaintiffs in the case, Abdallah Nasser and John Bohen, claim the sustainability promises made by Conagra on its packaging using MSC certification “deceives and misleads reasonable consumers.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ISSF review of MSC’s ghost gear policy development provides lessons for the industry

October 12, 2023 — The Marine Stewardship Council’s updated fisheries standard includes new requirements for preventing the loss of fishing equipment, such as nets and lines, and more stringent monitoring of the impact of lost gear, also known as “ghost gear.”

In a peer-reviewed paper, a team of scientists led by Victor Restrepo, the vice president of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, has documented the process the Marine Stewardship Council underwent to revise its policies around gear management for MSC-certified fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource