MSC says On The Hook report misrepresents the program

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has claimed a recent report by On The Hook misrepresents the program and doesn’t give proper credit to its sustainability efforts.

On The Hook released a report on 14 June claiming that the MSC certified harmful fishing practices. It also claimed the MSC is failing to keep up with the pace of change needed to deliver sustainable seafood.

“A key concern is that MSC is positioned as the height of sustainability but, in reality, the MSC system is lax and sets a fairly low bar for sustainability,” On The Hook Campaign Member Charles Redfern said in a release.

However, On The Hook review did not cover MSC's new 3.0 standard due to the overlapping timing of the report and the standard's release. On The Hook launched its external consultation on MSC’s standards in 2022, after calling for the MSC to perform the review itself.

The MSC responded by saying it is “disappointed” with On the Hook report, arguing that it misrepresented MSC's program and gave little credit to the improvements the organization has made to its new requirements for certification – including some requirements it said were urged by On The Hook. 

The MSC launched a review and update, that it considered the most comprehensive it had ever undertaken, in 2018 and published version 3.0 of its fisheries standard in October 2022. It said the four-year review of its standard included input over 1,000 submissions from hundreds of stakeholders globally.

The On The Hook consultation, meanwhile, received less than 100 responses.

“Far from being a low bar in sustainability claimed by On the Hook, many fisheries spend years making the improvements necessary for certification to the MSC program,” MSC said. “Our new requirements will result in even greater progress for fish stocks and ocean biodiversity as well as the people and economies that rely on them.”   

MSC said key improvements from its standard include greater protections for marine wildlife and new requirements on ghost gear. The organization also set a USD 100 million (EUR 91.2 million) fundraising goal to aid fisheries in adopting the MSC standard, with an emphasis on small-scale and emerging economy fisheries.

“We strongly disagree with the On The Hook claim that our credibility has been eroded,” the MSC said. “An independent survey of a range of over a thousand stakeholders – businesses, fisheries, scientists and environmental NGOs – in 2021 found this not to be the case, with the vast majority saying they trusted us to deliver our mission to end overfishing.”  

Image courtesy of On The Hook