Fishery certification requirements
This part of the MSC certification requirements contains what was previous known as the Fishery Assessment Methodology and Fishery Certification Methodology.
Within the annex sections you will find the assessment tree, Risk-Based Framework (RBF), objections procedure, and various forms and templates that the certifiers use.
What are the aims of the fishery certification requirements?
The requirements aim to:
- Simplify the assessment structure and make it more transparent. This will help to increase understanding among stakeholders of how fisheries will be assessed against the MSC standard for sustainable fishing
- Minimise variability in the way the standard is applied to ensure all fisheries are assessed in a similar and equitable manner
- Increase future certainty about reassessment for currently certified fisheries
- Improve robustness and credibility of fishery assessments by providing greater agreement on required performance
- Streamline the fisheries assessment process.
Current version of the MSC certification requirements
The first version of the MSC certification requirements (CR V1) was released in August, 2011.
There has been no alteration to the way assessments are carried out with the development of the new certification requirements. The aim was to consolidate previous MSC scheme documents into a single clear, concise document that did not involve substantive modification of current requirements.
This requirement is the intellectual property of the MSC and is periodically updated by the MSC Technical Advisory Board.
MSC will annually provide new versions of the CR, where changes will be tracked and will bear footnotes. The footnotes will reflect the authority who is making the decision, the date that the decision was made and the date on which the change should come into force.
Download the MSC certification requirements
Contact us
For further information please email standards@msc.org
