Fisheries Program Revisions: Endangered, threatened and protected species

These revisions are being carried out as part of the MSC’s Fisheries Program Revisions, which will resolve key concerns around Version 3.1 of the Standard and the Fisheries Certification Process, and ensure the MSC program continues to drive real and lasting progress towards ending overfishing.

The proposed changes will be shared in later in 2026, and there will be an opportunity to provide feedback through a 60-day public consultation. 

Why are revisions needed?

The MSC Fisheries Standard Version 3 introduced new and updated requirements to ensure that more species are afforded greater protections. This included a new classification system which required assessors to apply the requirements for endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species to all out-of-scope species, regardless of their population status. 

The intent of these requirements was to ensure fishery assessments considered impacts on ETP species more explicitly and through a more precautionary approach. However, assessors reported difficulties in applying the Standard in practice and identified unintended consequences ranging from some requirements not being precautionary enough, to others where the data requirements were not feasible for many well-managed fisheries. The latter was particularly apparent when assessing out-of-scope species of low conservation concern against requirements intended for ETP species.  

Areas of revision

The revisions will focus on the following key topics: 

1. Feasibility and applicability of using Favourable Conservation Status as a measure to assess ETP and Out-of-scope species.
   
   Under Version 3, assessors must consider whether a fishery is impacting a population’s ability to recover to a threshold known as Favourable Conservation Status - a minimum of ‘50% of unimpacted levels within three generations or 100 years, whichever is shorter’.
   
   This aimed to ensure assessments are more quantifiable, however in practice many fisheries lacked the data required. For many species, information on what constitutes Favourable Conservation Status is not available and management bodies typically do not collect such data for out-of-scope species of low conservation concern.
   
   
2. Feasibility and clarity of the requirement on "minimise mortality"
   
   Version 3 introduced requirements for fisheries to demonstrate how mortality of ETP and out-of-scope species is effectively minimised. Assessors reported difficulties interpreting what ‘minimised’ means in practice. They also identified conflicts between the requirements and regulations set by management bodies that allow retention of such species.
   
   
3. The definition of "negligible" and its application to ETP and out- of- scope species:
   
   A requirement was introduced to Version 3 which meant interactions with a bycatch species could be considered 'negligible' if they were demonstrably low. A classification of 'negligible' would mean no further consideration in scoring the fishery. 
   
   For fish and invertebrate species, this applied when the species made up less than 2% of the total catch. For out-of-scope species, this applied if fewer than 10 individuals were caught per year and the breeding population was sufficiently large.
   
   In practice, this does not always provide sufficient precaution for species that are slow to mature and reproduce. This includes some endangered shark species, as even low levels of bycatch of these species can have a significant impact.
   
   
4. The treatment of unobserved mortality
   
   Version 3 required assessors to quantify unobserved mortality (e.g. stress-related deaths from gear interactions) of ETP and out-of-scope species, in addition to observed mortality.
   
   In practice, assessors have experienced challenges in obtaining the required data on unobserved mortality and raised concerns over the feasibility of this requirement.

Developing the revisions

Any proposed changes be subject to pilot tests and impact assessments to ensure they deliver the intended sustainability outcomes and can be consistently applied.

The revisions to these areas may change what is required to undertake an assessment and meet our Standard. 

Next steps

Our stakeholders and partners will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the revisions proposed through a public consultation. We anticipate this will be held later in 2026. 

We anticipate the updated version will be issued in mid 2027 and come into effect six months after publication (likely early 2028). 

If you have any questions about the Fisheries Program Revisions, please contact [email protected] or your local MSC representative.