"We applaud the MSC certification program as it gives our customers confidence that purchasing seafood from certified sustainable fisheries will not contribute to overfishing or the harming of marine ecosystems."

Margaret Wittenberg, Whole Foods Market

Between 1997 and 1999 the MSC worked with individuals and organizations around the world to develop the standards and methodologies that form the basis of the MSC certification program for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability. The MSC program meets FAO guidelines that require assessments to be carried out by independent, third-party certifiers. Fisheries and seafood companies voluntarily seek certification against the standards, which meet the world's best practice guidelines for certification and ecolabelling.

Together, they offer fisheries a credible way to be recognized and rewarded for good management practices, and provide a traceability assurance to buyers. With these foundations, you can be sure that seafood carrying the MSC label comes from a certified sustainable fishery and every company in the supply chain has passed a detailed traceability audit.

MSC standards

• MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing
• MSC chain of custody standard for seafood traceability

MSC methodologies 

• MSC Fisheries Certification Methodology
• MSC Fisheries Assessment Methodology 
• MSC Chain of Custody Certification Methodology