New label gives fisheries a fighting chance

Consumers of Australian rock lobster will know they are eating a sustainable seafood source when the product bears a new Marine Stewardship Council label.

By Environmental News Network staff

March 13, 2000
Web posted at: 10:07 a.m. EST (1507 GMT)

The London-based Marine Stewardship Council this week is celebrating the certification of Thames herring and Australian rock lobster as sustainable fisheries. Products from the fisheries will carry a special label, designed for commercial packaging and restaurant menus, to let consumers know they are buying seafood from a sustainable source.

The two fisheries are the first to meet the criteria of the MSC program, whereby fisheries are evaluated for sustainability.

"The MSC's new eco-label creates real market incentives for healthy fisheries," said Scott Burns, director of the Worldwide Fund for Nature's endangered seas campaign. "For the first time, fishers can be recognized for managing their fisheries in a responsible way, and consumers will be able to purchase seafood that they know comes from sustainable sources. This can only be good news for consumers and for marine conservation."

"I congratulate the Marine Stewardship Council in getting the first MSC-certified products on the market," said Antony Burgmans, chairman of Unilever. "This is a significant step forward in the process of moving toward sustainable fishing, and I am certain other fisheries will follow the example."

The MSC was formed in 1996 as a joint effort between WWF, an international conservation organization, and Unilever, a worldwide consumer goods company and one of the world's biggest buyers of frozen fish.

WWF's purpose is protecting marine biodiversity. Unilever already has made a commitment to buy all of its fish from sustainable sources by 2005.

"They agreed that there was a need to create new market incentives for sustainable fishing," said Leigh Ann Hurt of WWF. "Both organizations had different motivations but a similar goal: to help ensure the long-term viability of global fish populations and the health of the marine ecosystem on which they depend."

The United Nations reports that at least 60 percent of the world's most valuable fisheries are overfished or fished to the limit.

The MSC developed a set of criteria by which fisheries are measured to determine if they merit certification and the corresponding eco-label. The guidelines of are as follows:

"Sustainable marine fisheries, by definition, will ensure that the catch of marine resources are at a level compatible with long-term sustainable yield, while maintaining the marine environment's biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes, taking into account:

• relevant laws
• ecological sustainability and ecosystem integrity
• responsible and effective management systems
• benefits from the fishery
• social considerations."

The criteria was developed over two years with input from environmentalists, industry representatives, fisheries experts and attorneys across the world. The standards are scientifically sound and internationally recognized, according to Hurt.

Independent, MSC-accredited certification officers use the criteria to assess fisheries that volunteer to be evaluated. The process is carried out privately between certifier and operator.

The assessments are confidential, but the MSC says at least seven other fisheries are being evaluated. They include the salmon fishery in Alaska.

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