Our Preserving ocean life report, launched for World Ocean Day 2025, demonstrates how well-managed, sustainable fishing practices are vital to ensure the long-term health and resilience of marine ecosystems.
Ocean health is fundamental
From the foreword:
"Marine ecosystems, vital to this planet’s web of life, are under increasing pressure from human activity, as evidenced by indices of overfishing, pollution, habitat degradation and accelerating ocean warming. These threats to the ocean’s
rich diversity will inevitably affect the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of people who rely on these ecosystems for food and income.
And so, both logic and morality call upon us to be better stewards of the ocean. Sustainable fishing
practices are key to responsible ocean stewardship. By ensuring that fish populations are not overexploited and that ecosystems remain healthy, sustainable fisheries can support balanced food webs, encourage long-term resilience of marine life and strengthen
food security."
Ambassador Peter Thomson
The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
Ocean life: an uncertain future
Extinction rates 100 to 1,000 times higher
than the natural baseline rate
40%
of reef-building coral species face extinction
37.7 %
of fish stocks are overfished
20.7 kg
average global consumption of aquatic animals per capita in 2022
10 billion
projected global population by 2050
How sustainable fishing supports ocean biodiversity
Central to the concept of sustainable fishing, is that fishing practices should not adversely or irreversibly impact ocean biodiversity.In practice this means that fisheries must be managed effectively to maintain healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and actively minimise impacts on endangered, threatened, and protected species a core principle of the MSC Fisheries Standard.
Sustainable fishing in numbers
357
improvements by MSC certified fisheries to safeguard habitats and endangered, threatened and protected species in the past five years
716
fisheries engaged in the MSC program*
19%
of all wild marine catch is engaged with the MSC
case studies
Preserving biodiversity in practice
Fisheries around the world are innovating and making the improvements needed to protect ocean biodiversity.
Their success and impact are often the result of collaboration between research scientists or NGOs and fishers whose shared knowledge results in deeper insights. The following examples show the impact they are having across the globe.
“These inspiring stories show that biodiversity protection and sustainable seafood production are two sides of the same coin.”
The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
A future view of ocean biodiversity
Science plays a vital part in tracking the impact of fishing on the ocean as well as helping to find solutions to the problems it faces.
At the beginning of 2025 we asked 58 scientists around the world what they considered to be the main threat to ocean health and biodiversity. Respondents said ocean biodiversity was at a tipping point, but reversal is possible if the right actions are taken now.
The MSC’s Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF) has been supporting collaborations that promote wider ocean health for more than five years.
We commit 5% of annual royalties from sales of products carrying the MSC ecolabel to the OSF, together with generous contributions from mission-aligned and philanthropic partners.
The annual fund provides grants for fishery improvements and supports important research into bycatch reduction, protecting marine habitats, and the impact of climate change on fishing.
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