Quality and consistency in assessments

When fisheries apply to see if they meet the MSC standard for sustainable fishing, it is important that they are all assessed equally and fairly. In practice this means that they are assessed against the same standard, following the same robust, science-based procedures.

Providing this quality and consistency is a significant challenge – every fishery is unique and certifiers face many variable factors in making their assessments. In 2006, with over 30 individual fishery assessments and re-assessments complete, MSC launched the Quality and Consistency Project, with the following objectives:

• Improve the common understanding by certifiers, fishery clients and stakeholders of how fisheries will be assessed,
• Simplify the assessment structure and make it more transparent
• Increase consistency of interpretation and application of the MSC standard to ensure all fisheries are assessed in a similar and equitable manner
• Improve the robustness and credibility of fishery assessments by providing greater clarity on required performance
• Improve the efficiency of the assessment process while maintaining the integrity of the MSC’s third party approach to certification.

New guidance for certifiers

The Quality and Consistency project led to the development of a new guidance document for certifiers, titled the Fishery Assessment Methodology. The new guidance was developed in consultation with fishery managers, scientists, conservation groups, government agencies and certifiers. It works alongside and is additional to the Fishery Certification Methodology, which remains the core document setting out the process by which accredited certifiers should assess fisheries.

A default 'assessment tree'

The Fishery Assessment Methodology focuses on a vitally important aspect of how fisheries are assessed: the ‘assessment tree’ and how it is scored. The assessment tree has always been a core part of the MSC program. It is structured on the 3 principles and 23 criteria that form the MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing. For each of the 23 criteria the assessment tree specifies 'performance indicators' (which define the specific areas of the assessment) and 'scoring guideposts' (which show the performance levels that the fishery will be scored against). Until now, the assessment tree was created afresh for each fishery by the assessment team, who established performance indicators and scoring guideposts according to the unique circumstances of the fishery.

Now, with the Fishery Assessment Methodology, assessment teams can utilize a ‘default’ assessment tree (suitable for the majority of fisheries) and follow default performance indicators and scoring guideposts. This makes the scoring process more streamlined, more transparent and faster. The new system leaves room for some flexibility – this is necessary because of the great diversity of fishery types in the world – but only if the fishery has certain special characteristics that cannot be scored using the default performance indicators and scoring guideposts.

No change to where ‘the bar’ is set

As part of the Quality and Consistency project, MSC undertook a series of checks to ensure that the new approach correctly represents the MSC standard, as applied to previous fishery assessments. MSC is confident that the new default assessment tree will significantly improve the consistency of assessments, without either raising or lowering 'the bar' against the average standard set in existing MSC fisheries.

Next steps

The Fishery Assessment Methodology and the default assessment tree was made available for use in MSC assessments from 21 July 2008. A revised version 2 of the FAM incorporating the Risk Based Framework was released on 31 July 2009. For more information, please see our Fishery Assessment Methodology pages.

Note: Quality and consistency in Chain of Custody assessments is considered through the Traceability and Assurance in the Supply Chain project.

Further information 

If you are interested in being involved in further phases of the Quality and Consistency Project or have any specific comments on the project, please contact Senior Fisheries Assessment Manager, Dan Hoggarth.

Email Senior Fisheries Assessment Manager
+44 (0)207 811 3320