And How Are the Fish? An Evaluation of Certified Seafood Rainer Froese Pew Fellows Meeting, Key Largo,

The Need for Labels 4,622 species of fishes are exploited by commercial fisheries (FishBase 10/2011) Most of these species occur in several stocks with different exploitation pressure There are many more non-fish seafood stocks Keeping track of which stocks are in good status and are exploited sustainably is beyond the capabilities of retailers and consumers Hence, there is a need for seafood certification

What Should Be the Rules? The Law of the Sea is binding for all countries (except USA and Singapore). It requires that stocks are rebuilt to and maintained at levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield MSY. The binding United Nations Fish Stock Agreement requires in addition that the precautionary principle is applied and that longterm fishing pressure is below the one that results in MSY. Non-binding FAO guidelines for ecolabeling of seafood require that certified seafood products stem from stocks that are not overexploited

MSY, B msy and F msy MSY is the maximum sustainable yield Biomass (B) is the weight of the fish in the sea B msy is the biomass that can produce MSY F msy is the fishing pressure that eventually results in B msy and MSY A stock is and remains in good status if B > B msy and F < F msy

Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) In April 2011 there were over 100 certified Fisheries in the MSC program, with thousands of products in many countries Fisheries are certified not by MSC but by companies who are selected and paid by the fisheries (about 100,000 US$) MSC sets the rules and gets a share from sales

Friend of the Sea (FoS) Over 80 stocks certified in over 30 fisheries Fisheries are evaluated by small teams selected by FoS Cost are lower than MSC

Principles and Criteria MSC has an extensive framework of principles and criteria against which fisheries are scored FoS has a short, transparent list of mandatory criteria Both MSC and FoS claim that they follow the FAO guidelines for ecolabeling of Seafood, (F B msy )

Reality Check Froese & Proelss (submitted) checked the status of all stocks certified in April 2011, 71 stocks for MSC and 76 for FoS For each stock we checked the certification reports as well as independent assessments to see whether F B msy

B > B msy ?

F < F msy ?

Did Stock Status Improve after Certification? For 11 MSC stocks with B < B msy at certification: – Biomass increased in 5 stocks – Biomass remained unchanged in 2 stocks (+/- 5 %) – Biomass decreased in 4 stocks

Reactions Both MSC and FoS obtained a copy of the draft paper FoS has subsequently de-certified three of the red stocks MSC has modified their procedures and contracted a similar assessment

If only stocks with available data are considered...

Conclusions Both FoS and MSC have to be much more rigorous in applying their criteria Especially MSC has to start de-certifying overfished stocks Despite the shortcomings, certified products are 3 (MSC) to 5 (FoS) times more likely to stem from not overexploited stocks than non- certified products