Elsevier

Marine Policy

Volume 71, September 2016, Pages 10-14
Marine Policy

Assessment of MSC-certified fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.05.003Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examines the status and exploitation level of 31 northern European stocks targeted by fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as being sustainable and well managed. In the first year of certification, 11 stocks (52% of stocks with available data) were exploited above the maximum sustainable level and four stocks (16% of stocks with available data) were outside of safe biological limits. MSC states that it certifies sub-standard stocks because they will improve once they are in their program. However, after a duration of certification of one to ten years (average four years), no significant changes in fishing pressure or stock size were detected. In the last certified year with available data, seven stocks (44% of stocks with available data) were subject to overfishing and five stocks (21% of stocks with available data) were outside of safe biological limits. Certification should guarantee that fishing quotas are set correctly and are enforced. However, in 11 stocks quotas were set 20–60% above the level that fishers were taking, whereas in three stocks landings exceeded quotas by 30–50%. The study concludes that MSC should change its rules such that overfishing or unsafe stock sizes lead to immediate suspension of certification and that no certification is issued in the first place for a stock that is already in such a situation.

Introduction

Status and exploitation level of seafood varies widely, even between different populations of the same species. Consumers who want to make a responsible choice when buying seafood therefore need guidance, such as provided by ecolabels. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) provides a widespread ecolabel and sets and maintains standards for sustainable fishing based on three core principles, namely: 1) sustainable target fish stocks; 2) environmental impact of fishing; and 3) effective management [1]. Principle 1 entails that “A fishery must be conducted in a manner that does not lead to over-fishing or depletion of the exploited populations and, for those populations that are depleted, the fishery must be conducted in a manner that demonstrably leads to their recovery”. More generally, for an exploited population (=stock) to be in sustainable good status, the stock must be sufficiently large and the fishing pressure must be below the maximum sustainable level. The European Union has recently reformed its Common Fisheries Policy [2], basically implementing in regional law the binding obligations provided by the Law of the Sea [3] and by the United Nations Fish Stock Agreement [4]. The new European policy requires that “exploitation of living marine biological resources restores and maintains populations of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield” [2, Article 2]. This goal can only be reached if fishing pressure is reduced below the rate of fishing mortality (F) corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield (Fmsy).

This study examines relative biomass and fishing pressure for 31 northern European stocks which are targeted by MSC-certified fisheries and which are referred to as MSC certified stocks in the remainder of this text. The study aims to answer the following questions: (i) has fishing pressure (F) decreased after certification? (ii) is current fishing pressure below the one which can produce the maximum sustainable yield (Fmsy)? (iii) has stock size grown after certification? (iv) Is the current stock size (B) above the one which can produce the maximum sustainable yield (Bmsy)? (v) has management set realistic and precautionary levels of total allowable catches (TACs)? (vi) have TACs been enforced and/or obeyed by the fisheries?

Section snippets

Material and methods

Information on MSC-certified fisheries was obtained from www.msc.org in September 2015. Data on stock size and fishing pressure were extracted from official advice documents available in September 2015 at www.ices.dk. For the purpose of this study, all 31 stocks assessed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and targeted by MSC-certified fisheries were analyzed. The year that the first fishery on a stock was certified was used as start-year for the evaluation. The

Results

Of the 31 northern European stocks with MSC-certified fisheries, three stocks (ane-bisc, her-2224, nep-3-4) were certified in 2015 and were therefore only used for the analysis of biomass at the beginning of the certification period. For the remaining 28 stocks, the period of certification was from 1 to 10 years, with a mean duration of 3.9 years (Table 1).

In the first year of certification, 52% of the stocks were subject to overfishing (F>Fmsy), 16% were outside of safe biological limits (B<Bpa

Discussion

There are quite a number of critical assessments of the criteria and procedures used by MSC to certify seafood [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Staff and advisors of MSC have responded to previous critical assessments of certified stocks [e.g. [11], [12] by claiming that the methods used were different from those used in the official stock assessments [23], [24]. This study therefore restricted its analysis to the official ICES stock assessment data

Conclusions

This study examined the status and exploitation level of northern European stocks targeted by MSC-certified fisheries. In the first year of certification, about half of the stocks with available data were exploited above the maximum sustainable level and four stocks were outside of safe biological limits. In the last certified year, 44% of the stocks were subject to overfishing and five stocks were outside of safe biological limits. Thus, after a duration of certification of one to ten years,

Acknowledgments

This study was funded in part by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety on behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (FKZ 3512-82-0300). This is FIN Contribution No. 197.

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