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

MSC: Sustainable fishing and ocean conservation receives close to $1 million funding boost from sustainable seafood ecolabel

April 20, 2022 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Satellite tagging stingrays, translocating sea urchins and developing deep-sea cameras are among the 22 projects and fisheries to have been awarded funding by the internationally recognised sustainable seafood certification and ecolabelling program, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced today. 

 Now in its third year, the MSC’s Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF) redirects 5% of its annual royalties from the sales of MSC certified sustainable seafood to accelerate the sustainability of fisheries globally.

 The fund is also expanding in scope and reach this year, as it opens up to third-party donations from funders.   

Amid global concerns about the depletion of ocean biodiversity, this year’s grants focus in part, on driving improvements that better protect endangered, threatened, or protected species or vulnerable marine ecosystems – with projects in Argentina, Greenland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and France. 

A total of US$936,000 in the form of 22 grants ranging from $6,500 to $68,000 each, are awarded to fisheries, scientists, NGOs and students from 12 countries to aid international efforts in marine conservation and sustainable fishing.

 At least half of the grants ($459,000) are supporting fisheries in developing economies that are transitioning to sustainable practices, including Indonesia, Mexico and India.   

Harnessing satellite tagging technology in the Mediterranean, the MSC certified SATHOAN artisanal bluefin tuna fishery will use the funding to understand better how stingray populations may be affected by fishing activity. The fishery releases any stingrays accidentally caught on longlines back into the ocean but needs more data to understand how the population is impacted long-term.  

Automated, illuminated, and underwater camera monitoring systems are being designed with funding received by the Western Australian government. The cameras will be used to map overlaps between the MSC certified West Coast crab fishery and remote deep-sea habitats. The unique system will be designed to withstand high pressure down to 1,000 metres deployment to collect habitat data which will be used to apply relevant management measures. 

Another grant will also support an investigation into whether translocating red sea urchins to areas with higher densities of kelp will help stocks to recover. Local marine heatwaves, resulting in a decline in kelp forests which the urchins rely on for food, alongside overfishing have led to a localised decline in sea urchin populations.

The research, led by Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) in Mexico hopes to understand whether translocations are improving sea urchin condition or in fact, doing more damage than good to the wider ecosystem. Fishers hope that by moving the urchins to an area with an abundance of algae to eat, the population may improve. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council said:

“Congratulations to all of the Ocean Stewardship Fund awardees this year. Our focus on marine biodiversity will help push forward scientific understanding of how improvements can be made in fishing practices to minimise ecosystem impacts. Without doubt, our collective efforts can help to ensure our oceans remain productive and resilient in the face of the growing pressures and demands placed on them but much more needs to be done and urgently if we are to deliver the UN Strategic Development Goals by 2030.” 

Dr Keith Sainsbury, Fisheries Assessment Scientist and member of the Technical Advisory Board to the Marine Stewardship Council said:

“I’m delighted to have been part of the panel reviewing these fascinating Ocean Stewardship Fund projects. All promote cross-sector collaboration between scientists and fishers to solve ocean challenges, with many using the traditional knowledge of fishers to encourage successful outcomes. Our ocean faces a multitude of threats from overfishing to climate change and biodiversity decline but we’re still in the window of opportunity to safeguard our oceans. Sustainable fisheries management can lead to incredible turnarounds, especially when fishers are viewed as being part of the solution.”   

Since the establishment of the Ocean Stewardship Fund in 2019, the fund has issued 64 grants to a total sum of USD$2.8 million. 

 

MSC Announces £650,000 in Grants for Fishery Observer Safety and Bycatch Improvement Projects

April 21, 2021 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced 20 fisheries and research projects will receive up to £60,000 through its Ocean Stewardship Fund, a fund dedicated to sustainable fishing across the globe.

The awards include grants to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), WWF India and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as well as to fisheries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, the MSC said. A quarter of the funding will focus on Global South fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Marine Stewardship Council funds ocean projects to drive progress in sustainable fishing

April 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Twenty fisheries and research projects around the world will receive up to £60,000 each from the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) Ocean Stewardship Fund – a fund dedicated to enabling and supporting sustainable fishing around the world.

The awards include grants to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), WWF India and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as well as to fisheries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Nearly a quarter of the funding has been awarded in support of fisheries in the Global South.

Research into fishery observer safety is a special focus this year given the critical role observers can play in providing the data and evidence required to demonstrate fisheries are operating responsibly. An Ocean Stewardship Fund grant will support Saltwater Inc. – a company which trains and deploys fishery observers – in collaboration with the I.T. consulting firm Chordata, LLC, to create a ‘one-touch’ communications platform. This will enable fishery observers to safely communicate with their home office, or alert emergency services to unsafe working conditions.

Three other grants will fund research aimed at reducing bycatch – a major cause of ocean biodiversity depletion – whilst other projects focus on fisheries’ harvest strategies and improvements in bait fisheries.

The 20 awardees include:

  • RSPB and ISF (Icelandic Sustainable Fisheries) Iceland lumpfish fishery which will conduct research into how effectively a bobbing buoy, with eyes on it, deters seabirds away from fishing nets. This could be a simple, cost effective way to reduce bycatch.
  • The fishing association, Tuna Australia, will research alternatives to using Argentine shortfin squid as bait, including artificial bait, as this species is under threat from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The results will be important for the Australian Eastern Tuna and Billfish fishery as well as other fisheries that use bait.
  • A postgraduate student from IPB University in Indonesia will use environmental DNA analysis to identify bycatch species in blue swimming crab fisheries in the Java Sea. The data will be vital in progressing the fishery improvement project, led by APRI – the Indonesian Blue Swimming Crab Association – towards sustainability.

The Fund also supports fisheries that are in the early stages of improving their management practices. Six of the grants, totalling nearly a quarter of the funding (£157,724) are supporting fishery improvement projects in the Global South, including the deep-sea shrimp trawl fishery in Kerala, India and blue swimmer crab fisheries, squid fisheries and snapper and grouper fisheries in Indonesia.

The MSC’s Chief Executive, Rupert Howes, said:

“Congratulations to all the 2021 awardees of the Ocean Stewardship Fund. The MSC established the Ocean Stewardship Fund in 2018 to fund credible projects and initiatives that will deliver real improvements in the way our oceans are being fished and importantly, will help fisheries around the world to progress on their pathway to sustainability.

“The knowledge generated by these projects will inform the sector more widely and we hope, will catalyse and lead to further adoption and scaling of solutions beyond the immediate beneficiaries of the grants.

“I was very impressed by the quality of all of the applications this year and have no doubt the Ocean Stewardship Fund’s focus on collaborative projects is driving innovation and creativity. Without doubt our collective efforts can help to ensure our oceans remain productive and resilient in the face of the growing pressures and demands placed on them but much more needs to be done and urgently if we are to deliver the UN strategic development goals by 2030.”

Since 2019, the Ocean Stewardship Fund has awarded 35 grants totalling £1.3 million and the MSC hopes the impact of those projects will contribute to the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water.

For more information about the Ocean Stewardship Fund, including previous grant awards, please visit: www.msc.org/oceanstewardshipfund

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

The Marine Stewardship Council’s Ocean Stewardship Fund 2021 open for applications

October 7, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Marine Stewardship Council is inviting fisheries, scientists, NGOs and postgraduates to apply for grants from its Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF) – a fund dedicated to supporting best practise in sustainable fishing. Awards of between £5,000 to £50,000 are available across five different strands of funding within the Ocean Stewardship Fund.

The MSC also announced that the two priorities for the Science & Research strand of the fund in 2021 are fisheries’ harvest strategies to ensure effective stock management, and research focused on improvements in bait fisheries. Driving progress in both areas will help accelerate the uptake of sustainable fishing practises.

The priority for the Innovation strand of funding will be fishery observers. Many fisheries rely on observers to collect essential evidence needed for sustainable fishery management, and the MSC has already committed £100,000 for research to identify ways to improve their safety.

Grants are also available to support small-scale fisheries and fisheries in the developing world as well as to existing certified fisheries that have already made long-standing sustainability commitments.

The Marine Stewardship Council’s CEO, Rupert Howes said:

“We have seen incredible progress in sustainable fishing but more needs to be done and now to ensure our oceans remain productive and resilient in the face of the growing pressures and demands placed on them. The clock is ticking and we are not on track to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14, aimed at conserving the oceans, seas and marine resources by 2030.

“The MSC wants to use its Oceans Stewardship Fund to contribute to the acceleration of this much needed transition by funding and supporting research and projects that tackle the challenges facing the global fishing industry. We recognise that, collectively, the actions we all take will make a difference and can help to safeguard our oceans for future generations.”

The MSC anticipates £1 million will be available in this round of the Ocean Stewardship Fund in 2021. The fund, which is now in its second year of operation, is supported annually by royalties earned from the sale of products carrying the MSC ‘blue fish’ label.

Last year, the Ocean Stewardship Fund awarded £650,000 to 15 projects and fisheries including projects tackling lost fishing gear and research into how to minimise impacts on endangered, threatened or protected species.

To find out more information about the grants available for 2021, and the deadlines for application visit www.msc.org/oceanstewardshipfund