MSC seeks feedback on fisheries standards

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has launched a public consultation on proposed revisions to its Fisheries Program, seeking to maintain rigorous environmental sustainability requirements while making assessments clearer and more practical.

The consultation opened on Thursday, 8 October and runs until Tuesday, 8 December. Stakeholders can review the proposals and submit feedback through an online survey.

“The MSC highly values input from its stakeholders to help shape the Fisheries Standard,” said Amanda Stern-Pirlot, MSC’s chief standards officer. She encouraged anyone with an interest in the standard to participate, adding that stakeholder feedback was vital to ensuring requirements reflected global best practice and could be applied consistently and efficiently.

The proposed changes aim to clarify requirements, remove unnecessary complexity and improve consistency in certification assessment outcomes. The MSC Fisheries Standard provides a global benchmark for environmentally sustainable fishing, intended to help tackle overfishing and protect marine biodiversity.

Key revisions concern endangered, threatened and protected species, with proposals for classifications that better reflect conservation status and more rigorous assessments of fisheries’ impacts. Independent observation requirements covering human observers and electronic monitoring would also be revised to align with widely used international best practice.

Other proposals seek to strengthen seafood traceability throughout the supply chain and improve the assessment of information accuracy, harvest control strategies in non-tuna fisheries, fisheries targeting shared stocks and fisheries operating with limited data.

The revisions have been developed collaboratively by the MSC, fishery assessors, fisheries representatives and environmental non-governmental organisations. Three dedicated panels have worked to develop and test proposals and analyse their potential impacts, supported by a feedback process designed to assess their effectiveness and consistent application.

The review covers the Fisheries Standard version 3.1, Fisheries Certification Process version 3.1 and Fisheries Standard Toolbox version 1.2.

A further 30-day public consultation on the final proposals is expected in April 2027. The MSC plans to publish version 4 of the Fisheries Standard in September 2027, with implementation scheduled to begin six months later.