MSC fails to impress

The validity of the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) eco-label is becoming more and more questionable.

As reported in another post, part of the west coast prawn fishery has been approved by the MSC as sustainable, yet ICES are now saying that stocks are declining to such an extent that there is a need to cut the annual total allowable catch (TAC) in half.

Waitrose supermarkets are refusing to stock fish from certain MSC certified fisheries because they don’t meet their four-point policy, which includes fishing methods. The fish are caught by bottom trawling which lays waste to seabed communities and is one of the most environmentally destructive, according to their specialist fish buyer.

MSC certified Orange roughy exported from NZ has also failed to meet the sustainability standards of several other supermarkets throughout Europe and the US, which have consequently quit selling it.

Since Waitrose began selling only sustainable fish, its fish sales have jumped by 15 per cent in the last month alone compared to the same period last year. Frozen fish sales have mounted by 21 per cent according to an International Supermarket News report.

Greenpeace have stated the world does not currently have a fully credible certification system for sustainable seafood. While they recognise the efforts of the MSC and Friend of the Sea (FOS), they do not endorse them.

In the case of the MSC programme Greenpeace feel there are several weaknesses: relatively weak environmental standards, insofar as they inadequately address crucial fishery sustainability issues like overfishing and the impacts of destructive fishing; the use of vague language that opens the door for intentional misinterpretation; an objection process that is overly time consuming and too costly for some stakeholders; and lacking or inexistent socio-economic standards including basic workers’ rights and a fair judgment process to decide who has the rights to fish; and how much of the catches fishers are allowed to keep.

According to Greenpeace, the weaknesses intrinsic to FOS include lax environmental standards that inadequately address fishery sustainability such as overfishing and destructive fishing, plus vague language open for misinterpretation, as well as no existing requirements for aquaculture to use sustainable fish feed. Although standards were strengthened in January 2009, only fisheries assessed thereafter are required to abide by them.

Other perceived weaknesses of FOS’ programmes are a lack of professionalism and transparency and no accreditation body to check its assessments and audits; poor stakeholder involvement; an unclear and partly inaccessible objections process; loose socio-economic standards; and poor quality and consistency assessments.

Everyone is now keeping their eye on the Clyde nephrops and North Devon bass trawl fisheries, both of these are being assessed for accreditation, yet both have excessive discard levels.

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