MSC responds to Pew
18 August 2010
Pew Environment Group
Washington, DC 20004-2008
The Pew Environment Group (Pew EG) recently urged its membership to oppose the assessment of the Southeast North Atlantic swordfish, yellowfin and bigeye tuna fisheries based in Florida by sending a pre-prepared form email to Dr Robert Trumble, Vice President of the independent certifier group MRAG Americas.
While the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) welcomes stakeholder input the Pew EG email campaign provided its members with limited information about the MSC assessment process. Below are details as to how to further engage during the several stakeholder consultation opportunities within the assessment process. The swordfish and tuna assessment has just begun and it is premature to reach any conclusion about any aspect of the fishery assessment against the MSC standard, including the impact on sea turtles from longline fishing and effects from the Gulf oil spill. These two issues of particular concern to those participating in the email campaign are among many issues associated with the fishery that will be studied by the independent certification team during assessment. When a fishery participates in the MSC program, they agree to be assessed against the MSC’s rigorous environmental standard, which will consider the impact on sea turtle and other bycatch. And while the issue of food safety is under the jurisdiction of government agencies, the assessment will examine potential impact from the oil spill on stock health.
The MSC does not conduct the fishery assessment and the MSC remains impartial throughout the process, which is crucial to preserving the trust and reliability that come from an independent, third-party assessment, and maintaining the global credibility of the MSC certification program.
All assessments against the Marine Stewardship Council’s internationally recognized environmental standard (www.msc.org/documents/scheme-documents) for wild capture fisheries are conducted by independent, accredited certifiers who recruit a team of scientific experts with the relevant expertise and experience to review that specific fishery. In this case, the certifier is MRAG Americas. Unfortunately, Pew EG identified Dr. Robert Trumble, Ph.D., the lead auditor, as being affiliated with the MSC and this is inaccurate. Consequently, any form emails received by the MSC have been forwarded to Dr. Trumble.
The MSC program is compliant with international best practice guidelines as a rigorous, science-based, third-party certification system. Consistent with UN FAO guidelines for ecolabels, any fishery can voluntarily enter the program in an effort to prove that its fishery, including gear type used, management and ecosystem impact, can meet MSC’s rigorous environmental standard.
The fishery is assessed by an independent certifier against the MSC’s three core principles: health of the fish stock; impact on the marine ecosystem and management of the fishery. There are 31 performance indicators that are evaluated across these three core principles; reports are published at key milestones and peer reviewed by an additional set of independent scientists. This peer review, similar to that in scientific journal articles, is one of the important checks and balances within the MSC program. Another important check and balance is the fact that the MSC requires every assessment process to be open and transparent. A recommendation for MSC certification can only occur if the fishery completes the entire assessment process and the scientific scoring against the MSC standard confirms the fishery can operate in a sustainable manner that includes consideration of the fishery’s impact on bycatch species.
While not pre-judging the outcome of this assessment, conditions associated with previous successful assessments have resulted in significant improvements in some fisheries that have dramatically reduced impacts on other species. One such example is the South African hake fishery where improvements in fishing practices were adopted that reduced seabird bycatch from 18,000 per year to 200. When presenting this information to other audiences we are often asked ‘how can a fishery be certified with such high bycatch’. The answer was that until observers were placed on board the hake vessels (as another condition of certification) the bycatch had never been enumerated before. Once this was known successful efforts to reduce bycatch were introduced in order for the fishery to maintain its certificate.
In addition, the assessment also requires a management system that is effective and responsive to changes in both the stock and the ecosystem, and can adjust fishing to preserve the stock and not put other species in the ecosystem at risk.
This week Pew updated the campaign page on its website, which also includes incorrect information the MSC would like to correct. As noted, the assessment of the fishery is independent of the MSC – the MSC doesn’t take part in the scoring and determination of a fishery assessment. On August 11th and 12th the independent team of experts met with the fishery and stakeholders to begin to gather information and stakeholder input to use in scoring the fishery. The next step is for the assessment team to the score the fishery based on the scientific information, research, and stakeholder input collected. After the scoring of the fishery is concluded, the certifier will draft a report, which will be sent to two additional independent scientists to carry out the peer review of the assessment. Following this, a Public Comment Draft Report, including scores awarded and draft determination, will be produced, upon which interested stakeholders will have 30 days to submit comments to the certifier.
A guide and template for contributing to this process is available from the certifier or for download from the MSC website. The MSC programme also includes an objection process and if stakeholders are still not satisfied with the assessment and determination following the peer review and public comment period, an objection can be raised that must be heard by an Independent Adjudicator before any determination is finalised.
The Marine Stewardship Council’s website, http://www.msc.org, contains information on every fishery in the program, links to assessment reports and a guide to stakeholder involvement that is available for download. If you would like to provide information as part of this or another assessment, or receive information as it becomes available, we invite you to visit the MSC website and contact the certifier undertaking the assessment of the fishery that is of interest to you.
Sincerely,
