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The MSC collaborates with scientists and researchers around the world. We provide data for global reports and work together on important new research. This page outlines research projects we're currently involved in.
The UN recognises the MSC as a major ocean stakeholder. We contribute to the work of UN bodies such as the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) in a number of ways.
Data from the MSC is used by the UN Environment Programme and other intergovernmental organisations to track progress towards international goals to end overfishing and protect biodiversity.
The latest UN Biodiversity Report highlights the contribution of MSC certified fisheriesto global progress on the sustainable management and harvesting of fish.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. Our research shows that MSC certified fisheries are helping to deliver up to 34 different SDG targets.
As climate change continues to have impact on our oceans, more fish species will be affected by warming waters. Many species are moving towards the poles and out of their historic ranges as a direct result. This leads to a number of environmental and socioeconomic issues.
Some fisheries are experiencing lower harvests due to less fish being available. Others who now have access to newly arrived fish on their shores, are unable to access their share. This is because existing quota allocations are based on historic distributions. Transboundary species – those that move between two or more coastal states or Exclusive Economic Zones – may require new intergovernmental agreements.
How do we sustainably manage stocks that are shifting? And what practices can be used to ensure management is adaptive and able to react to changing conditions?
A research project will test options for an adaptive allocation system in order to sustainably manage shifting stocks across U.S State management boundaries. The socioeconomic benefits and trade-offs of these options will also be assessed.
The project will be completed using a retrospective analysis for fisheries already facing issues in the U.S Mid-Atlantic, namely summer flounder and black sea bass. If for example a change in their catch allocation had been made based on their current distribution and sooner, how would that have affected the future? Perceptions will be recorded through a series of consultations with fishery managers and industry stakeholders. If the trials are successful, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will consider adopting these new rules.
Initially, fisheries under the jurisdiction of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council will benefit. However, this work will produce a replicable model that could be used to support other decision makers. The research will also identify other U.S fisheries that are experiencing rapid shifts in stock range and flag fisheries at risk from conflict around allocation of quotas. It could also potentially inform management of transboundary stocks.
This research is funded through the Pew Charitable Trust’s Lenfest Ocean Program. It is led by Rod Fujita at the Environmental Defense Fund and Prof Arielle Levine at San Diego State University. Co-principle investigators include Dr Katie Longo, Senior Scientist at the MSC, Scott Crosson at NOOA Fisheries, Prof. Olaf Jensen, University of Wisconsin, Prof. Lisa Wainger, University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Science, Chris Dumas, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Juliano Palacios, San Diego State University and advisors: Bob Beale, Executive Director of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and Ellen Bolen, Deputy Director for Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
For more information, please contact Dr Katie Longo, Senior Scientist at MSC.
The impact of the MSC program on environmental sustainability is an established area of research. However, the social and economic effects that occur as a result of certification are less well understood. Although there are some published studies on this topic and lots of anecdotal information from practitioners on the ground, it is difficult to know whether these observations can be generalised without a balanced, rigorous program-wide study. This research will help us to understand the positive, negative, direct and indirect consequences of the MSC program.
A data-collection plan that monitors the socio-economic effects of the MSC program. To do this, the MSC held multiple workshops with expert marine social scientists and economists. This group helped develop an in-person, semi-structured interview approach, which gathers perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders. The MSC has a number of stakeholders including fisheries organisation representatives, boat-owners, processors, managers and NGOs, among others.
The work was supported by a systematic review of the documented impacts of the MSC certification program. This work highlighted important research gaps in the link between fisheries and supply chain, which we hope to fill.
Our new survey was tested with a number of MSC certified fisheries around the world. Our research on the socioeconomic drivers and impacts of eight fisheries in Western Australia was published in 2020. A second study considering the experiences of three fisheries in the USA, France and Portugal is currently in review. Our survey was also the basis for the socioeconomic research with NEF Consulting which considered the experiences of two certified fisheries in the UK.
This has helped us gain a better understanding of what influences the choice to join, or leave, the MSC Program. It has also helped us understand what market dynamics and stakeholder relationships mean for the different actors involved, certified or not. It provides evidence for how MSC's Theory of Change works on the ground.
This research will contribute to more transparent reporting and a well-rounded understanding of the overall impacts of the MSC program. It will also identify negative effects that might need to be addressed in future. Recent research in the journal Science highlighted that comparatively little research has been undertaken on the social dimension of seafood sustainability and we hope that our project will contribute to fill this gap.
The initial survey development was led by Chris Anderson, University of Washington, Seattle, USA and Amber Himes-Cornell at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization , Rome, Italy. It was further developed by Ingrid van Putten at CSIRO, Hobart, Australia. The project draws on expertise from MSC staff around the world as well as external economists, social and political scientists.
The latest MSC Fisheries Standard (version 2.0) has new rules that ensure stronger protection for habitats. Fisheries now need to show there is no serious or irreversible harm on habitats from their fishing activities. To do this, they need to understand how their activities impact the seabed.
We’re working with researchers at Bangor University to create software for fisheries assessors to use to better measure the impacts of fishing gear and vessels. It will draw on available habitat data and identify the combinations of habitat and fishing gear types that lead to serious damage – damage that takes more than 20 years for the habitat to recover.
Fisheries will be able to use this tool to understand and manage their habitat impacts. It will also help to provide quantitative evidence for third-party assessment bodies who assess fisheries against the MSC Standard. This is necessary for protecting sponges, corals and other rare sea floor species and habitats.
This research is a collaboration with Bangor University, UK.
For more information on this project please contact Shaun McLennan, Fisheries Assessment Manager at MSC.
Many well-managed fisheries might not have the sort of data on the species they catch or the places they fish that are usually used in MSC assessments. This includes traditionally operated small-scale fisheries and those in the Global South.
The MSC has already provides a Risk-Based Framework that combines expert judgement with a series of analytic tools to score fisheries against the MSC Fisheries Standard. However, other data-limited methods that are sometimes used to guide fisheries management, are difficult to apply to the Standard. This project considers how fisheries managed with these data-limited methods can be audited consistently against the MSC Standard. The project has developed documentation and reporting templates, mechanisms for peer review and increased research and knowledge of the performance of these data-limited methods. It also provides a robust way to calculate uncertainty of fish stocks’ status and harvest strategies.
The MSC and its research partners are developing a user-friendly fishery simulation tool, which will help data-limited fisheries understand the best approach to take. Understanding their options more clearly will ensure they have the best chance of meeting sustainability requirements. These types of tools can be fundamental in ensuring fisheries focus their resources on informative data and robust harvest strategies. The tool will also help certifiers score fisheries once they are ready to be fully assessed.
Small-scale fisheries employ about 90% of the world's capture fishers but can sometimes lack the capacity to use the data they have in a robust way. By providing clearer guidance for fisheries that use less data-intensive approaches when developing harvest strategies, we hope to increase the accessibility of the MSC program to a wide range of fisheries. We want to contribute to this evolving area of important research which supports Fishery Improvement Projects around the world.
The initial research was developed with The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council and the University of British Columbia, Canada. It is now being further developed in partnership with Tom Carruthers at BlueMatter Science and Oxford University, UK. Fisheries science experts from around the world and stakeholders in Indonesia, Mexico and Japan are also involved. The research is funded by David & Lucille Packard foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
For more information on this project please contact Dr Katie Longo, Senior Scientist at MSC.
MSC publications include scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and specialist reports. Unless marked otherwise, publications have been co-authored by MSC staff: publications marked with a * were supported with MSC funding; publications marked with a ** were commissioned and paid for by the MSC.
**Brautigam, A. 2020. Best Practice in the Prevention of Shark Finning. Pp. 1-25
Free,C., Jensen, O., Anderson, S.C., Gutierrez, N.L., Kleisner, K.M., Longo, C., Minto, C., Osio, G.C., Walsh, J.C. 2020. Blood from a stone: Performance of catch-only methods in estimating stock biomass status. Fisheries Research, 223: 105452.
Good, S.D., Baker, G.B., Gummery, M., Votier, S.C. and Phillips, R.A., 2020. National Plans of Action (NPOAs) for reducing seabird bycatch: Developing best practice for assessing and managing fisheries impacts. Biological Conservation, 247, p.108592.
*Haas, B., 2020. Tuna management in action: assessing the contribution of the WCPFC to the SDGs. Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs, 12(1), pp.42-47.
Handley, J.M., Pearmain, E.J., Oppel, S., Carneiro, A.P., Hazin, C., Phillips, R.A., Ratcliffe, N., Staniland, I.J., Clay, T.A., Hall, J. and Scheffer, A., 2020. Evaluating the effectiveness of a large multi‐use MPA in protecting Key Biodiversity Areas for marine predators. Diversity and Distributions, 26(6), pp.715-729.
*Méndez-Medina, C., Schmook, B., Basurto, X., Fulton, S. and Espinoza-Tenorio, A., 2020. Achieving coordination of decentralized fisheries governance through collaborative arrangements: A case study of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Marine Policy, 117, p.103939.
*Oyanedel, R., Gelcich, S. and Milner‐Gulland, E.J., 2020. Motivations for (non‐) compliance with conservation rules by small‐scale resource users. Conservation Letters, p.e12725.
*Oyanedel, R., Gelcich, S. and Milner‐Gulland, E.J., 2020. A synthesis of (non‐) compliance theories with applications to small‐scale fisheries research and practice. Fish and Fisheries.
van Putten, I., Longo, C., Arton, A., Watson, M., Anderson, C.M., Himes-Cornell, A., Obregón, C., Robinson, L. and van Steveninck, T., 2020. Shifting focus: The impacts of sustainable seafood certification. PloS one, 15(5), p.e0233237.
Barendse, J., Roel, A., Longo, C., Andriessen, L., Webster, L.M., Ogden, R. and Neat, F., 2019. DNA barcoding validates species labelling of certified seafood. Current Biology, 29(6), pp.R198-R199.
Erickson, L.E., Snow, S., Uddin, M. and Savoie, G.M., 2019. The need for a code of professional ethics for marine conservation communicators. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, p.304.
*Kakai, T.M., 2019. Assessing the effectiveness of LED lights for the reduction of sea turtle bycatch in an artisanal gillnet fishery-a case study from the north coast of Kenya. Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science, 18(2), pp.37-44.
Barendse, J., Basson, J., Petersen, S.L. and Sink, K.J., 2018. The sustainable seafood movement viewed as a maturing social-ecological issue using a South African case-study. Ocean & Coastal Management, 151, pp.178-192.
*Christie, L., 2018. Understanding how sea ice influences Arctic deep-water food webs across a latitudinal gradient. Arctic, 71(4), pp.467-472.
Jarre, A., Shannon, L.J., Cooper, R., Duggan, G.L., Gammage, L.C., Lockerbie, E.M., McGregor, E.S., Ragaller, S.M., Visser, N., Ward, C. and Watermeyer, K.E., 2018. Untangling a Gordian knot that must not be cut: Social-ecological systems research for management of southern Benguela fisheries. Journal of Marine Systems, 188, pp.149-159.
Komives, K., 2019. Conservation impacts of voluntary sustainability standards: how has our understanding changed since the 2012 publication of “Toward sustainability: the roles and limitations of certification? Washington, DC; 2018.
*Mullins, R.B., McKeown, N.J., Sauer, W.H. and Shaw, P.W., 2018. Genomic analysis reveals multiple mismatches between biological and management units in yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). ICES Journal of Marine Science, 75(6), pp.2145-2152.
Anderson, S.C., Cooper, A.B., Jensen, O.P., Minto, C., Thorson, J.T., Walsh, J.C., Afflerbach, J., Dickey‐Collas, M., Kleisner, K.M., Longo, C. and Osio, G.C., 2017. Improving estimates of population status and trend with superensemble models. Fish and Fisheries, 18(4), pp.732-741.
Brown, S., Agnew, D.J. and Martin, W., 2016. On the road to fisheries certification: The value of the Objections Procedure in achieving the MSC sustainability standard. Fisheries Research, 182, pp.136-148.
Fogarty, M.J., Rosenberg, A.A., Cooper, A.B., Dickey-Collas, M., Fulton, E.A., Gutiérrez, N.L., Hyde, K.J., Kleisner, K.M., Kristiansen, T., Longo, C. and Minte-Vera, C.V., 2016. Fishery production potential of large marine ecosystems: A prototype analysis. Environ Dev, 17, pp.211-219.
*Gonzáles-Andrés, C., FM Lopes, P., Cortés, J., Sánchez-Lizaso, J.L. and Pennino, M.G., 2016. Abundance and distribution patterns of Thunnus albacares in Isla del Coco National Park through predictive habitat suitability models. Plos one, 11(12), p.e0168212.
Barendse, J. and Francis, J., 2015. Towards a standard nomenclature for seafood species to promote more sustainable seafood trade in South Africa. Marine policy, 53, pp.180-187.
Blackmore, E., Norbury, H., Mohammed, E.Y., Cavicchi, S.B. and Wakeford, R., 2015. WHAT'S THE CATCH?: Lessons from and Prospects for Marine Stewardship Council Certification in Developing Countries. International Institute for Environment and Development.
Pérez-Ramírez, M., Castrejón, M., Gutiérrez, N.L. and Defeo, O., 2016. The Marine Stewardship Council certification in Latin America and the Caribbean: A review of experiences, potentials and pitfalls. Fisheries Research, 182, pp.50-58.
Agnew, D.J., Gutiérrez, N.L., Stern-Pirlot, A. and Hoggarth, D.D., 2014. The MSC experience: developing an operational certification standard and a market incentive to improve fishery sustainability. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71(2), pp.216-225.
Agnew, D.J., Gutiérrez, N.L., Stern-Pirlot, A., Smith, A.D., Zimmermann, C. and Sainsbury, K., 2013. Rebuttal to Froese and Proelss “Evaluation and legal assessment of certified seafood”. Marine Policy, 38, pp.551-553.
Gutierrez, N.L. and Agnew, D.J., 2013. MSC objection process improves fishery certification assessments: a comment to Christian et al.(2013). Biological Conservation, (165), pp.212-213.
Gutierrez, N.L., Valencia, S.R., Branch, T.A., Agnew, D.J., Baum, J.K., Bianchi, P.L., Cornejo-Donoso, J., Costello, C., Defeo, O., Essington, T.E. and Hilborn, R., 2012. Eco-label conveys reliable information on fish stock health to seafood consumers. PloS one, 7(8), p.e43765.
Martin, S.M., Cambridge, T.A., Grieve, C., Nimmo, F.M. and Agnew, D.J., 2012. An evaluation of environmental changes within fisheries involved in the Marine Stewardship Council certification scheme. Reviews in Fisheries Science, 20(2), pp.61-69.
Agnew, D., Grieve, C., Orr, P., Parkes, G. and Barker, N., 2006. Environmental benefits resulting from certification against MSC’s Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing. MRAG UK Ltd. and Marine Stewardship Council, London.
Agnew, D., 2008. Case study 1: toothfish—an MSC certified fishery. Seafood Ecolabelling, Principles and Practice. PP. 247-258
Von Der Heyden, S., Barendse, J., Seebregts, A.J. and Matthee, C.A., 2010. Misleading the masses: detection of mislabelled and substituted frozen fish products in South Africa. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67(1), pp.176-185.
Howes, R., 2008. The marine stewardship council programme. Seafood ecolabelling: Principles and practice, pp.81-105.
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Senior Impacts Analyst
Our research collaborations deepen our understanding of sustainable fishing and supply chain traceability.
The MSC Student Research Grant supports postgraduate students carrying out research with fisheries engaged or working towards the MSC program.
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