Revisions to the MSC’s tool for assessing data-limited fisheries are underway to ensure it is appropriately precautionary and aligned with the requirements of the Fisheries Standard.
A review of the Risk-based Framework began in July 2024 as part of a wider evaluation of the Fisheries Standard Toolbox. The Toolbox Review was incorporated into the Fisheries Program Revisions in July 2025.
The Fisheries Program Revisions will resolve key concerns about the MSC’s fisheries certification program and will ensure it can continue to drive real and lasting progress towards ending overfishing.
An initial consultation on the proposed changes to the Risk-based Framework was held in 2025, and there will be a further opportunity to provide feedback on the refined proposals later in 2026.
Why are revisions needed?
The Risk-based Framework (RBF) is a tool used to assess the environmental impacts of data-deficient fisheries against the MSC Fisheries Standard.
Following the implementation of Version 3 of the Standard, stakeholder feedback and an internal review carried out by the MSC identified several issues with the application of the RBF. These included concerns that aspects of the RBF can be overly precautionary in some circumstances, creating accessibility challenges for fisheries, and insufficiently precautionary in others - meaning assessments won't fully reflect risk. There was also recognition of the need to improve efficiency in the RBF, to reduce unnecessary complexity and avoid stakeholder fatigue.
Use of the RBF intersects with multiple aspects of the Standard and so additional changes will also be made to align with other revisions made during the Fisheries Program Revisions.
Areas of revision
Proposed revisions to the following topics were developed as part of the initial Fisheries Standard Toolbox Review and shared during a public consultation held between July and September 2025:
- Evaluation of the appropriateness of Productivity Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) attributes and how scores are calculated
Productivity Susceptibility Analysis assesses how likely a stock is to recover when depleted, as well as how likely other species are to interact with fishing gear.
Currently, some non-target species that may not be particularly vulnerable to capture can receive low PSA scores based on their low rates of productivity. This can adversely affect the scoring of some well-managed fisheries.
Revisions to the RBF may include introducing an optional new risk assessment tool that could be used to adjust scoring outcomes for certain species. - Clarified use of the RBF in assessing fisheries against Principle 2
Guidance will be added to the Fisheries Standard Toolbox to clarify how management performance indicators under Principle 2 should be assessed when the RBF has been used. - Streamlined engagement process during assessments
Assessors will be required to highlight information gaps or include draft scores derived through the RBF at an earlier stage of the assessment process (i.e. inclusion in the Announcement Comment Draft Report).
This will help stakeholders provide feedback more easily and earlier on in the process.
There will also be more flexibility in how assessors can engage stakeholders and how stakeholders can provide input on the use of the RBF in scoring a fishery.
Read the proposed changes to the Risk-based Framework, developed for the public consultation in July 2025:
• Summary of Proposed Revisions (July 2025)
• Proposed draft changes to the Fisheries Standard (July 2025)
• Proposed draft changes to the Toolbox (July 2025)
The topics listed below were identified following the initiation of the Fisheries Program Revisions. Proposed changes will be shared for feedback later in 2026. - Clarifying the Consequence Sequence Analysis tool
Removing redundant terms and sections and ensuring the tool is not overly complex. - Clarifying the triggering of the RBF for endangered and out-of-scope species
Revisions will be made to align the triggering requirements for the RBF with changes to requirements for assessing endangered, threatened and protected species and out-of-scope species. - The application of the RBF to key low trophic level species
Clarifying the RBF triggering requirements for the assessment of key low trophic species under Principle 1. - Alignment with Fisheries Certification Process (FCP) requirements
Ensuring consistency in the way final scores are derived when multiple scoring elements are, scored using both the RBF and the default assessment tree.
Developing the revisions
The feedback from the 2025 public consultation has been reviewed and will be used to further improve the revisions.
Pilot testing and impact assessments will be carried out to ensure any proposed changes to the Standard and associated documents deliver the intended sustainability outcomes and can be consistently applied.
Revisions to these areas may change the level of performance required to meet our Standard.
Next steps
A summary report from the July 2025 public consultation will be shared in April 2026.
All stakeholders and partners will have an opportunity to review the updated proposals to the RBF alongside all other proposed changes to the Standard, Toolbox and Fisheries Certification Process. We anticipate this next stage of consultation will take place in later in 2026.
We anticipate the updated versions 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.
