Saving Seafood

Seaspiracy: Netflix documentary accused of misrepresentation by participants

April 1, 2021 — A Netflix documentary about the impact of commercial fishing has attracted celebrity endorsements and plaudits from fans with its damning picture of the harm the industry does to ocean life. But NGOs, sustainability labels and experts quoted in Seaspiracy have accused the film-makers of making “misleading claims”, using out-of-context interviews and erroneous statistics.

Seaspiracy, made by the team behind the award-winning 2014 film Cowspiracy, which was backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, pours doubt on the idea of sustainable fishing, shines a spotlight on the aquaculture industry and introduces the notion of “blood shrimp”, seafood tainted with slave labour and human rights abuses.

Launched last week, the 90-minute film is already trending on the platform as one of its Top 10 most watched films and programmes and has been praised by celebrities including Bryan Adams, the vegan Canadian rock star, who urged his followers to watch it and stop eating fish. Chris Froome, the seven Grand Tour-winning British cyclist, tweeted that “my mind has been blown” by the film. George Monbiot, the environmentalist and Guardian columnist, who appears in it, described it on Twitter as “a brilliant exposé of the greatest threat to marine life: fishing”.

Directed by Ali Tabrizi, a film-maker from Kent, the wide-ranging documentary questions the sustainable seafood movement and looks at the way the Dolphin Safe and Marine Stewardship Council labels may not be able to provide the assurances consumers are looking for.

Read the full story at The Guardian

Industry pans Seaspiracy as misleading

March 31, 2021 — Groups and organizations involved in the global seafood industry, as well as individual stakeholders and scientists, are responding with concern to a new Netflix documentary, “Seaspiracy,” which purports to investigate the impact of commercial fishing on marine ecosystems and wildlife.

The 90-minute film, which has consistently led Netflix’s top 10 rankings around the world since its late-March release, was created by the same team behind 2014’s “Cowspiracy,” a similar feature-length documentary spotlighting the animal agriculture industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC: Our Seaspiracy response

March 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Seaspiracy film on Netflix raises a wide range of issues relating to our oceans, including questioning the credibility of the sustainable seafood movement and in particular, our organisation, the Marine Stewardship Council. While we agree more attention needs to be given to the crisis of overfishing, we do want to set the record straight on some of the misleading claims in the film:

There is no such thing as sustainable fishing

This is wrong. One of the amazing things about our oceans is that fish stocks can recover and replenish if they are managed carefully for the long-term. Examples of where this has happened and stocks have come back from the brink include the Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Oceans or the recovery of Namibian hake, after years of overfishing by foreign fleets, or the increase in some of our major tuna stocks globally. And what is even more amazing, is that if we take care of our fish stocks – they take care of us. Research shows that fish stocks that are well-managed and sustainable, are also more productive in the long-term, meaning there is more seafood for our growing global population, which is set to reach 10 billion by 2050.

MSC certification is too easy and not credible

The reform of fishing practices and growth of the sustainable seafood movement is something that the MSC is very proud to have played a part in, along with many other partners and organisations. There are more than 400 MSC certified fisheries around the world. This certification process is not carried out by the MSC – it is independent of us and carried out by expert assessment bodies. It is an entirely transparent process and NGOs and others have multiple opportunities to provide input. All our assessments can be viewed online at Track a Fishery. Only fisheries that meet the rigorous requirements of our Standard get certified. Contrary to what the film-makers say, certification is not an easy process, and some fisheries spend many years improving their practices in order to reach our standard. In fact, our analysis shows that the vast majority of fisheries that carry out pre-assessments against our criteria, do not meet these and need to make significant improvements to gain certification.

MSC is funded by industry and is not independent

The MSC is an independent not-for-profit that was set up by WWF and Unilever more than 20 years ago because of concern about overfishing. We are not a commercial enterprise and we do not receive any income from fisheries or from the third-party certification of fisheries.

Our income is derived from two sources: charitable donations from foundations, and licensing of our blue ecolabel, which is used by companies in the supply chain, such as food producers, supermarkets and restaurants to identify MSC certified seafood. The use of our ecolabel is voluntary, and only a fraction of seafood coming from certified sustainable fisheries bears our ecolabel.

The MSC is entirely transparent about its market-based funding model. We believe consumer demand for sustainable seafood products helps to drive reform of the fishing industry, incentivising the take-up of sustainable fishing practices.  All of the income from licensing use goes back into our programme of work.  This includes, for example, providing grants through our Ocean Stewardship Fund, to support fisheries in the developing world.

MSC certified fisheries have unacceptable levels of bycatch

In fact, fisheries certified to the MSC Standard must provide evidence that they are actively minimising unwanted catch. Fisheries that need to improve in this area, can be set goals that they have to meet in order to keep their certificates or risk being suspended.  We believe the Icelandic fishery mentioned in Seaspiracy falls into this latter category. It  was suspended from the programme because of bycatch issues and only allowed back into the programme when they had been resolved. There are numerous positive  examples of MSC certified fisheries introducing innovations to protect marine life, such as modifying gear type to decrease turtle bycatch or adding LED lights to increase the selectivity of catch. Among some notable achievements by MSC certified fisheries is a rock lobster fishery in Australia that reduced its bycatch of sea lions and a hake fishery in South Africa that reduced its bycatch of albatross by 99%.

Sustainable fishing helps protect our oceans and us

While we disagree with much of what the Seaspiracy documentary-makers say, one thing we do agree with is that there is a crisis of overfishing in our oceans. However, millions around the world rely on seafood for their protein needs. With the global population set to reach 10 billion by 2050, the need to harness our natural resources more responsibly is more urgent than ever. Sustainable fishing has a vital role to play in securing those resources.

Read the full release here

Seaspiracy film assails fishing and aquaculture sectors that seem ready for a good fight

March 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Global Aquaculture Alliance:

Seaspiracy, a documentary-styled film released on Netflix this week, intends to shock, and on that count it succeeds.

The 90-minute exposé shows ocean pollution and its vast effects on marine life; it displays grotesque images of dolphins and whales being slaughtered and of vast bycatch species dying, alleging that commercial fisheries have little regard for marine animals and birds; and it outright dismisses aquaculture for its use of marine ingredients and for what it says are poor culture environments.

With the financial backing of Hollywood star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio, Seaspiracy follows in the footsteps of the similarly produced film Cowspiracy, released in 2014. Like its predecessor, this new film’s clear aim is to turn viewers off of animal proteins in favor of plant-based diets. It doesn’t pull any punches in doing so, alleging:

  • That the oceans will be empty of fish in 27 years and will become a barren wasteland
  • That aquaculture’s use of fishmeal and fish oil in feeds reduces it to “wild fishing in disguise”
  • That farmed salmon are raised in lice-plagued waters and the fish are “swimming in circles in their own filth”
  • Dismisses the concept of sustainable seafood entirely
  • That the best action is to abstain from any seafood consumption whatsoever.

To make his case, director Ali Tabrizi exhibits victims of forced labor on fishing vessels, notably those from previously documented cases in Thailand. One person who survived tells of physical abuse and the constant threat of death from vessel operators.

Read the full release here

ASC launches largest-ever public consultations on new standards

March 8, 2021 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) on Monday, 8 March announced the launch of its largest-ever public consultations, seeking feedback on two separate changes to its standards.

The public consultation, which seeks input from stakeholders, is looking for feedback on the council’s proposed environmental requirements on the aligned farm standards, which according to the ASC will cover all certified species “bringing efficiencies and improvements without compromising on quality.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC aims to increase activity and drive sustainable fishing in Mexico

February 25, 2021 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) plans to increase its presence and activities in Mexico, rolling out a strategic plan for the creation of a community of producers and commercial partners, while also implementing a communications campaign on the importance of sustainable fishing and the benefits of getting certified.

To increase environmental stewardship in Mexico’s fishing industry, MSC will work with key industry players to drive its chain of custody certification and its eco-labeling program of certified products in stores, which allows consumers to recognize fisheries that use resources rationally with a minimized impact on the ecosystem. and reward those fisheries with their purchases.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF Report: 16 Tuna Stocks Not Meeting Criteria for Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Sustainability Standard

February 25, 2021 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

Independent fisheries scientists in ISSF 2021-01: An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria — a February 2021 report commissioned by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) — found that seven out of 23 major commercial tuna stocks worldwide are successfully avoiding overfishing when measured against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard and maintaining target stock biomass levels: North Atlantic albacore, South Atlantic albacore, Eastern Atlantic bluefin, Western Pacific skipjack, Eastern Pacific yellowfin, South Pacific albacore and Indian Ocean skipjack. These seven stocks earned a passing score (two of them without conditions) for the MSC Fisheries Standard on its Principle 1: “Sustainable Fish Stocks.” Under Principle 3: “Effective Management,” most tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) scored well.

MSC is an independent, international, non-profit organization that oversees a program to assess global wild-capture fisheries and certify them as “sustainable” if they meet its Fisheries Standard criteria. In the March 2020 edition of the report, four stocks passed Principle 1, indicating a slight improvement explained by the new stock assessments conducted in 2020, as well as the good scores of one of the bluefin stocks newly incorporated in this version. Principle 3 evaluations remained unchanged for the most part.

The report attributes 16 other tuna stocks’ inability to pass MSC Principle 1 to poor stock status, the lack of well-defined harvest control rules (HCRs), and/or the lack of effective tools to control harvest. A stock will pass if its overall score is 80 or above, and no single score is less than 60.

Notable Report Findings

An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria was independently authored by Paul A. H. Medley, Jo Gascoigne, and Giuseppe Scarcella. This is the first time the report evaluates the four bluefin stocks (Western Atlantic bluefin, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin, Pacific bluefin and Southern bluefin) under Principle 1 and the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) under Principle 3. One of the four bluefin stocks (Eastern Atlantic) received a P1 overall passing score.

Most changes in the evaluation of other tuna stocks are due to new tuna stock assessments conducted by RFMOs in 2020 and how those stock assessments affect HCRs (e.g., providing evidence that management controls are effective in limiting fishing mortality).

About the Report

An Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council Criteria takes a consistent, comprehensive approach to scoring tuna stocks based on certain components of the MSC standard. The report — updated regularly since it was first published in 2013, and organized by individual tuna stock and tuna RFMO — is designed to:

  • Provide a basis for comparing between stock scores and tuna RFMO scores as assessed by the same experts
  • Become a useful source document for future tuna certifications or in the establishment of tuna Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs)
  • Prioritize ISSF projects and advocacy efforts against initiatives that will improve low performance indicator scores

The scores in the report focus on stock status (MSC Principle 1) and the international management aspects relevant to RFMOs (part of MSC Principle 3) and are based on publicly available fishery and RFMO data. Each of these Principles is evaluated in relationship to Performance Indicators (PIs) within each Principle. The Evaluation report also includes detailed remarks on each stock, evaluations of the five RFMOs, and comprehensive reference citations.

MSC Principle 1

The MSC Principle 1 states: “A fishery must be conducted in a manner that does not lead to overfishing or depletion of the exploited populations and, for those populations that are depleted, the fishery must be conducted in a manner that demonstrably leads to their recovery.”

Of the 23 tropical and temperate tuna stocks, 7 achieved a passing score for Principle 1, meaning its overall score is 80 or above, and no single score is less than 60. Failure was due to poor status of the stock, the lack of well-defined harvest control rules in place and/or the lack of effective tools to control harvest. Three of the 23 stocks have fully implemented well-defined harvest control rules, and there has been progress towards this aim by all RFMOs.  However, with the exception of CCSBT, not all RFMOs have made progress toward this aim for all tuna stocks under their management. Slow progress — exacerbated in some cases by the Covid-19 pandemic — and failure to implement controls before rebuilding is required leads to a stock’s failing to meet minimum requirements on harvest control rules.

Regarding stocks receiving passing scores:

  • Among nine tuna stocks in the Atlantic Ocean, three received an overall principle-level passing score: Northern albacore, Southern albacore and Eastern bluefin (the only bluefin stock to receive a passing score).
  • Among nine tuna stocks in the Pacific Ocean, three received overall principle-level passing scores: Western skipjack, Southern albacore and Eastern yellowfin.
  • Among five stocks in the Indian Ocean, one received an overall principle-level passing score: skipjack.

Regarding stocks receiving failing scores:

  • In the Atlantic, yellowfin, bigeye, Western skipjack, Eastern skipjack, Western bluefin and Mediterranean albacore all received principle-level failing scores.
  • In the Pacific, six stocks received overall principle-level failing scores: Western yellowfin, Western bigeye, Eastern bigeye, Eastern skipjack, Northern albacore and Pacific bluefin.
  • In the Indian Ocean, yellowfin, bigeye and albacore all received overall principle-level failing scores.
  • Southern bluefin tuna also received an overall P1 failing score.

MSC Principle 3

The MSC Principle 3 states: “The fishery is subject to an effective management system that respects local, national and international laws and standards and incorporates institutional and operational frameworks that require use of the resource to be responsible and sustainable.”

One tuna RFMO — the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) — received unconditional passing scores for all seven performance indicators under Principle 3. This is the first year that the CCSBT was included in the analysis, and that RFMO did not receive an unconditional passing score. The other four tuna RFMOs received overall principle-level passing scores from the authors.

While the report focuses on tuna stock status and sustainability as well as on RFMO policies, it does not address national or bilateral management systems, gear- or fleet-specific ecosystem impacts, or specific fisheries’ ecosystems — all of which are also considered within the MSC assessment methodology.

Since 2011, ISSF has been an active stakeholder in MSC tuna fishery assessments and certifications. ISSF’s strategic objective is to develop and implement verifiable, science-based practices, commitments and international management measures to help all tuna fisheries become capable of meeting the MSC certification standard without conditions.

About the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) — a global coalition of seafood companies, fisheries experts, scientific and environmental organizations, and the vessel community — promotes science-based initiatives for long-term tuna conservation, FAD management, bycatch mitigation, marine ecosystem health, capacity management, and illegal fishing prevention. Helping global tuna fisheries meet sustainability criteria to achieve the Marine Stewardship Council certification standard — without conditions — is ISSF’s ultimate objective. To learn more, visit iss-foundation.org, and follow ISSF on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

MSC Launches Commercial Strategy for Mexico

February 19, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an independent international non-profit organization that helps protect the oceans around the world, announced that it will increase its presence and activities in Mexico to empower the fishing industry. It will do so with key players of the industry and based on its chain of custody certification along with their “eco-labeling” program of certified products in stores, to help protect the environment and ensure seafood for the current and future generations of the country.

The MSC has shown with success stories around the world that the dilemma between caring for the environment and promoting business development is false. What you have to do is fish in another way. Make a sustainable, certified fishing and bet on a green economic recovery. The value proposition of the organization that makes the above possible consists of aligning the interests of the industry with the care of the environment through a system of certification of good practices and an “eco-label”. This scheme allows the consumer to recognize and reward with their purchase decision those fisheries that make a rational use of fishery resources and that minimize their impact on the ecosystem. Currently 15% of world catches have benefited from the association’s certifications.

Read the full release here

MSC urged to raise the bar on shark-finning

February 17, 2021 — A new report by a cadre of scientists and members of environmental NGOs is calling on the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to take further action to combat the practice of shark-finning.

The report, which analyzed the MSC’s policies relating to shark-finning, asserts that the organization should adopt a “fins naturally attached” (FNA) policy in order to curtail – and hopefully eliminate – shark-finning. The council is failing its zero-tolerance policy on shark-finning, a press release from the organizations behind the report said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source