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The MSC Scholarship Research Program annually awards scholarships to support students around the world who are studying fisheries science and management or supply chain traceability.
Why get involved?
As a stakeholder, you are an essential source of information that will be needed to conduct a meaningful assessment. Whether you are a scientist, a fishery manager, a seafood processor, a government representative, a community member, a conservationist or other stakeholder with an interest in an assessment outcome, your information contributes to a thorough assessment. Your input helps ensure:
A fishery assessment begins when a fishery contracts a certification body. The certification body gathers information about the assessment and assigns an assessment team. The assessment team analyses information about the fishery, such as technical papers, reports, and data. They use this information to decide on draft scoring of the fishery against the MSC Fisheries Standard.
The assessment is announced in the MSC fisheries updates email. The announcement includes the assessment team members and the details of the site visit. The certification body publishes the Announcement Comment Draft Report on the MSC Track a Fishery website. This report includes draft scoring against the MSC Fisheries Standard with rationale and supporting information. For an overview of the Performance Indicators of the Standard see document below.
Using the stakeholder input template, comment on the Announcement Comment Draft Report. Include any evidence, references, or information to support your comments and be of use to the assessment team. It’s most helpful to the assessment team if you focus your feedback on the draft scoring and any information gaps in the assessment. If this is the first time a fishery has been assessed, you have 60 days to provide your comments. If it is a re-assessment of the fishery, you have 30 days to comment. Email the completed stakeholder input template to the assessment team. The team’s contact details will be on the MSC Track a Fishery website in the contact tab of your fishery of interest.
At the site visit, the assessment team interviews stakeholders and fishery managers and will consider all information and issues raised. The assessment team uses this information to score the fishery’s performance against the MSC Fisheries Standard.
This is your chance to give the assessment team your verbal input into the fishery assessment. You can attend the site visit and contribute. If you cannot make the site visit in person, the assessment team can arrange for you to be involved remotely, via phone or Skype (or similar).
The certification body produces a Client and Peer Review Draft Report summarising:
The certification body arranges independent experts known as peer reviewers (typically fisheries scientists) to review the draft report. Third-party scientists approve the selection of peer reviewers to ensure they give an independent review of the assessment. Stakeholders do not input at this stage.
The assessment team will respond to stakeholder, client and peer-reviewer comments in a report called the Public Comment Draft Report. This report includes a draft determination of whether the fishery is recommended for certification. The certification body will contact you for your comments if you are a registered stakeholder.
Using the same stakeholder input template, you can comment on the Public Comment Draft Report. You will be able to see the certification body's response to any comments you have already made. The Public Comment Draft Report is published on the MSC Track a Fishery website and posted in the Fisheries program updates email. You have 30 days to provide your comments.
Once the assessment team has considered everyone’s input during the assessment, they publish a Final Draft Report. This report includes the assessment team’s final determination as to whether or not the fishery should be certified. If you wish to object to the determination, you have 15 working days to submit a Notice of Objection after the Final Draft Report is published.
More than one stakeholder can submit a Notice of Objection for the same fishery. Once a Notice of Objection is submitted, an independent adjudicator is assigned to the objection.
When you submit a Notice of Objection the independent adjudicator will review if the certification body has made an error of procedure, scoring, or condition setting and if this error influenced the determination of the fishery assessment, or undermines the fairness of the assessment. An accepted objection does not mean that the whole assessment is redone. You can object if you think one of the following errors has occurred during the assessment process:
The independent adjudicator will make a decision based on the arguments and evidence set out by you, the certification body and other stakeholders during the objection process.
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