The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is seeking feedback on proposed revisions to its Fisheries Program. The revisions are designed to maintain the rigour of the MSC’s environmental sustainability requirements, whilst making them clearer and more practical to apply during assessments.
The public consultation begins on Thursday, 8 October and will remain open for feedback until Tuesday, 8 December. All stakeholders can review the proposed revisions and provide feedback through an online survey.
The MSC Fisheries Standard sets the leading benchmark for environmentally sustainable fishing globally and it is vital that its requirements drive real and lasting progress towards ending overfishing and protecting biodiversity. The proposals include clarifying requirements, removing undue complexity, and streamlining processes to ensure assessment outcomes are more consistent.
Key revisions include:
- Endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species: More appropriate classifications based on conservation status, and more rigorous assessment of fisheries’ impacts on ETP species.
- Independent observation: Requirements for human or electronic observation revised to align with widely used global best practice, based on independent analysis.
- Traceability requirements: Strengthening the traceability of certified seafood throughout the supply chain.
Other revisions relate to evaluating the accuracy of information provided in assessments, the requirements for the adoption of harvest control strategies in non-tuna fisheries, refining scoring for fisheries that target the same stock, and clarifying how fisheries with limited data should be assessed.
The revisions have been developed through collaboration between the MSC, fishery assessors, and representatives from fisheries and eNGOs. Three dedicated panels have been created to propose changes to requirements, test the proposals, and analyse their impacts. A comprehensive feedback system between the panels will ensure the proposed changes deliver the intended sustainability outcomes on the water and can be consistently applied.
The MSC Fisheries Standard v3.1, Fisheries Certification Process v3.1, and Fisheries Standard Toolbox v1.2 are all included in the review. There will be an additional 30-day public consultation on the final proposals, which is expected to take place in April 2027. Version 4 of the Standard is expected to be published in September 2027 and will come into effect six months after the publication date.
Amanda Stern-Pirlot, MSC’s Chief Standards Officer said: “The MSC highly values input from its stakeholders to help shape the Fisheries Standard. We encourage anyone with an interest in or knowledge of the Standard to take part in the consultation. We have introduced new tools to make participation in the consultation easier, and local MSC representatives are ready to help to make sure all input is heard. This input is vital to ensure the Standard and certification scheme continue to reflect widely adopted global best practice and can be efficiently and consistently applied.”