Marine Stewardship Council
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| Nonprofit organization | |
| Industry | Sustainable seafood labelling |
| Founded | 1996; London, United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | Marine House, Snow Hill, London, EC1 |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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c. 140 |
| Website | www |
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Footnotes / references |
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The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent non-profit organization which sets a standard for sustainable fishing. Fisheries that wish to demonstrate they are well-managed and sustainable compared to the science-based MSC standard are assessed by a team of experts who are independent of both the fishery and the MSC. Seafood products can display the blue MSC ecolabel only if that seafood can be traced back through the supply chain to a fishery that has been certified against the MSC standard.
The mission of the MSC is to use its ecolabel, for which the MSC receives royalties for licensing it to products, and fishery certification program to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices, influencing the choices people make when buying seafood, and working with partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. Another organisation, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, promote and certifies sustainable aquaculture.
When buyers choose MSC-certified fish, well-managed fisheries are rewarded for sustainable practices. In turn, the growing market for certified sustainable seafood generates a powerful incentive for other fisheries to demonstrate they are fishing sustainably or to improve their performance so that they too can be eligible for MSC certification. In this way, the MSC program helps to harness market forces to incentivise positive environmental change.
A study found that MSC-certified fisheries show improvements that deliver benefits to the marine environment. Benefits included: increased stocks; improved management of stocks; reduced bycatch; expansion of environmentally protected areas; and increased knowledge about ecosystem impacts amongst fishers. A further study published in the scientific journal PLoS One found, following the first comprehensive analysis of global fish stocks targeted by MSC-certified fisheries, that certified stocks are healthy and maintained above levels that ensure continuing sustainability.
The MSC was founded in 1996, inspired by the Grand Banks cod fishery collapse. In 1999 it became independent of its founding partners, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Unilever. MSC has a staff of around 140 spread across the headquarters in London, regional offices in London, Seattle, Singapore and Sydney, and local offices in Edinburgh, Berlin, The Hague, Paris, Cape Town, Tokyo, Reykjavik, and the Baltic region.
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