Left to right: Richard Benyon MP, veteran oceans campaigner Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative MP James Heappey and SNP MP John McNally

Senior MPs urge the Marine Stewardship Council to review Standard

UNITED KINGDOM
Tuesday, November 21, 2017, 04:00 (GMT + 9)

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has come under fire by the former fisheries minister, Richard Benyon MP, along with veteran oceans campaigner Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative MP James Heappey and SNP MP John McNally.

The MPs aired their concerns about the current MSC Standard which allows for fisheries to be partially certified. The standard allows fisheries to be MSC certified and for vessels to operate both with and without fish aggregating devices (FADs), even if the FAD system is unsustainable. Zac Goldsmith stated that many consumers find it “very hard to know when they buy fish whether it’s sustainable or not”. He asked Therese Coffey, the Minister responsible for the marine environment, if it was correct that “fleets which one day use sustainable tackle and the next day use completely rapacious, unsustainable, tackle” are allowed to sell products with a MSC blue tick logo.

MPs speaking at the debate on how the UK could act to save our oceans were concerned about the way British consumers are being sold products labelled with a MSC logo that were caught in unsustainable fisheries. John McNally MP stated that the blue tick “leads us all to assume ethically approved practices are in place” but that “real doubts are now emerging with the MSC awarding the blue tick to some questionable fishing areas”.

This comes at a time when The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) compartmentalised fishery is being considered for recertification, meaning that products caught in the fishery will be able to carry the MSC logo even though unsustainable FAD fishing takes place at the PNA.

Richard Benyon made it clear that it should be up to the British government to take action against the MSC since the charity and company are based in the UK.

Former fisheries minister, Richard Benyon MP stated:

“The Marine Stewardship Council is the only show in town in terms of accreditation of sustainable fisheries. It is a UK registered, UK based, charity so we are right to hold it to account. It has messed up here and there is a very good chance that it could reaccredit an unsustainable fishery.”

Veteran oceans campaigner, Zac Goldsmith MP said;

“Given their near monopoly status in the world in terms of providing that certification- that assurance- does [the minister] agree with me that the Government should be encouraged to work closely with the MSC to ensure that they raise rather than continue to weaken their standard at the cost of the world’s oceans”

Although the re-certification process is conducted by a third party it is the MSC who set the Standard that the auditors work to. Speaking after the debate James Heappey MP stated that it is the MSC standard that needs to change.

After the debate, James Heappey MP, said:

“The debate showed that MPs have been keeping a very close eye on the situation with the re-certification of the PNA. Although presented with several opportunities to do so, the MSC have failed to allay the fears of parliamentarians who do not think their standards are good enough.

“It is unacceptable that a vessel and crew can use the same fishing nets one day to catch tuna sustainably – receiving the MSC certification – and then on the same day, be hauling tuna along with turtles, sharks, juvenile tuna and other protected species unsustainably.

“People expect a product with an MSC logo to have been sustainably sourced from a wholly sustainable fishery. If that is not what the logo means anymore, we simply cannot trust the organisation.”

editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media

Print