What is a sustainable fishery?
A sustainable fishery has healthy and productive populations of fish where the
integrity of the ecosystem is maintained. The fishing activity within the
sustainable fishery is well managed and ensures their environmental impact is
reduced including minimising bycatch and collecting data to determine their
total allowable catch.
An MSC certified sustainable fishery must be scored highly against three
principles:
Healthy populations of target fish
Ecosystem impact minimised
Good management in place
The UN FAO estimates that 65.8% of fish stocks are within biologically
sustainable levels (2017).
There are 446 fisheries certified sustainable to the MSC Fisheries Standard,
making up just 17.4% of all fish caught by volume and over 180 species of fish
(31 March 2021). View all fisheries in the MSC program.
92% of MSC certified fisheries have made at least one improvement. An
improvement is the result of an action taken by a fishery to ensure it maintains
its MSC certification. Sometimes, one action produces multiple improvements.
For example, closing an area to fishing could impact several species.
When you buy seafood make sure it comes from a sustainable fishery by looking
for the MSC blue fish tick.
A basic definition of a fishery
A fishery is an area where fish are caught for commercial or
recreational purposes. It can be a defined body of water or a collection
of fishing activity that have been agreed upon by countries and fishers.
You often have different fisheries for each target species of fish or
shellfish.
A more advanced definition of a
fishery
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) defines
a fishery as a unit determined by an authority or other entity that is
engaged in raising and/or harvesting fish. Typically, the unit is defined
in terms of some or all of the following:
people involved
species or type of fish
What is a sustainable fishery?
A sustainable fishery has healthy and productive populations of fish where the
integrity of the ecosystem is maintained. The fishing activity within the
sustainable fishery is well managed and ensures their environmental impact is
reduced including minimising bycatch and collecting data to determine their
total allowable catch.
An MSC certified sustainable fishery must be scored highly against three
principles:
Healthy populations of target fish
Ecosystem impact minimised
Good management in place
The UN FAO estimates that 65.8% of fish stocks are within biologically
sustainable levels (2017).
There are 446 fisheries certified sustainable to the MSC Fisheries Standard,
making up just 17.4% of all fish caught by volume and over 180 species of fish
(31 March 2021). View all fisheries in the MSC program.
92% of MSC certified fisheries have made at least one improvement. An
improvement is the result of an action taken by a fishery to ensure it maintains
its MSC certification. Sometimes, one action produces multiple improvements.
For example, closing an area to fishing could impact several species.
When you buy seafood make sure it comes from a sustainable fishery by looking
for the MSC blue fish tick.
area of water or seabed
method of fishing
class of boats
purpose of the activities.
The MSC uses this definition to refer to a Unit of Assessment (UoA) or a
group of such UoAs that is under assessment or certified against the
MSC Fisheries Standard.
A fishery explained$