GET READY TO EXPLORE
AN MSC OCEAN
The Marine Stewardship Council helps fishers to protect the Ocean in many intriguing and surprising ways. You’ll discover examples of how fishers are helping to protect our ocean, as you dive down to the bottom of the sea.
WHY WE LOVE Scarecrows on the Ocean
Seabirds are an essential part of a healthy marine ecosystem. But fishing can pose challenges to them.
They are often attracted to fishing boats and they compete for catch with the fishing industry. Birds that forage behind fishing boats can get caught up in the trawl cables between the net and the boat and can sometimes get entangled in the mesh of the net as it is hauled out of the water. So to help them avoid this, sometimes it's important to scare them away.
Bird-scaring or “tori” lines consist of a rope with brightly coloured streamers hanging down and set parallel to the cables off the stern (back) of the vessel. The streamers warn off seabirds and deter them from colliding with the trawl lines. Also, fishers can change the way they discard any fish waste back into the sea so that it does not attract seabirds.
Working with MSC and Birdlife South Africa, these kinds of changes have helped the MSC Cape Hake fishery reduce seabird bycatch mortalities by 90% and achieved a 99% reduction in albatross deaths.
rewarding hard work with a sticker
Fishing sustainably is not as easy as you might think.
To be certified as sustainable, fisheries must be assessed across 28 areas of sustainability and marked against 89 scores. If everything goes well, an assessment takes an average of 12 months.
However, fisheries often need to make a lot of improvements before they can realistically be assessed. For some fisheries, it can take many years to make these improvements. To be MSC certified, fisheries must prove that they are fishing at sustainable levels, that they are well-managed and that they are minimising their impact on the ocean environment around them.
All of this is assessed not by the MSC, but by independent certifiers (ocean experts) who are specially trained to carry out these kinds of audits.
And fisheries don’t stop improving once they become MSC certified.
Most certificates define further areas of work or improvements that the fishery must make throughout the five-year lifetime of its certificate. And to make sure certified fisheries continue to operate sustainably, they are audited every year. If the fishery doesn’t pass the audit every time or doesn´t make sufficient progress on their conditions, they can have certification suspended or withdrawn. Once certified, a fishery's seafood can be sold with the MSC label on, so consumers know it has been fished with care for the ocean.
WHY WE LOVE to leave the
lights on
MSC certified fisheries are always on the lookout for innovative ways to avoid catching unwanted species. Especially threatened species such as Candlefish (Eulachon), a small but beautiful silvery fish that is classified as threatened under the USA Endangered Species Act. Candlefish are endemic to the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Research by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife conducted in 2014 found that placing LED lighting on the foot ropes of shrimp nets reduces unwanted catch of eulachon by 80-90%. MSC certification encourages fisheries to use this technology. These research findings have led to 100% of vessels in the area adopting the use of LED lights.
It is not entirely clear how the LED lights manage to guide the eulachon away from the nets, the best theory is that the light illuminates an escape path or that it warns the fish to move downwards under the net.
Fisheries around the world are finding innovative technology such as light and acoustic devices to avoid interactions with species that they do not want to catch.
HOW ARE Bananas Good for the ocean?
At MSC we love innovation and new technology. The fisheries we work with constantly try to keep up with best practices and the latest science.
The Banana Pinger is just one type of acoustic device (which is yellow in colour and shaped like a banana), developed by Fishtek Marine to attach to fishing nets.
It sends underwater sound waves to deter marine mammals from getting too close to nets, and has been used by fisheries to help prevent harbour porpoise (similar in appearance to the dolphin) from being caught up in fishing gear.
To become MSC certified, fisheries must prove that they aren't adversely impacting wildlife populations in their fishing area and are actively reducing unwanted catch. Pingers are just one device fishers can use to do that. Scientific studies have shown pingers to reduce harbour porpoise bycatch by up to 92% - that’s why some Atlantic MSC certified fisheries have used pingers on their nets.
THESE CAN REDUCE PORPOISE BYCATCH BY UP TO
WHY IS IT GOOD TO takE time off?
For some fish populations, it's better not to fish for them the whole year round, so that they get a chance to breed, grow and replenish. To be MSC certified sustainable, the AGAC Four Oceans Tropical Tuna Fishery's purse seine fishing boats must stop fishing for at least 72 days, in specially designated areas.
As the capacity of fishing fleets in the Pacific Ocean increases, these kinds of measures are introduced to maintain a sustainable tuna population. In addition to these seasonal closures, scientists employed by the fishery monitor the populations continuously to check that the situation does not change.
Regular audits are all part of a fishery keeping its MSC certification. Certified fisheries around the world may have to stop fishing for many reasons.
From allowing tuna stocks to recover, to making sure that surrounding bird populations, or other vulnerable species, have time to breed or grow without being disturbed.
getting to the bottom of THINGS...
LITERALLY
With only around 20% of the world's seabed floor mapped, it can be hard for fishers to know what impact they might be having on the ocean floor.
MSC certified fisheries need to show they do not cause long-term or irreversible impact to ocean habitats. This means, for example, that fishers need to understand what's going on beneath the surface.
Fisheries using bottom-towed gear, must take care over their impact on the seabed. Where the picture could be clearer, MSC certification encourages fishers to collect data - and sometimes even provides funding to do so.
MSC has funded over £100k of research to help fishers map the ocean floor and identify vulnerable habitats and species the fishers should avoid - like bumblegum corals, sponges and seapens.
Scientist at ZSL (Zoological Society of London) worked with several MSC certified Greenland fisheries to identify vulnerable coral gardens. Identifying over 230 groups of organisms has helped create a long term seabed management plan supported by Greenland's government.
MSC has funded over £100k of research to help fishers map the ocean floor and identify vulnerable habitats and species the fishers should avoid - like bumblegum corals, sponges and seapens.
Scientist at ZSL (Zoological Society of London) worked with several MSC certified Greenland fisheries to identify vulnerable coral gardens. Identifying over 230 groups of organisms has helped create a long term seabed management plan supported by Greenland's government.
These are just a few of the things that happen when the MSC helps fisheries to fish more sustainably.
If you want to eat seafood that comes from an MSC ocean, just look for the MSC certified label when you buy your seafood.
When we look after our Ocean,
our ocean looks after us.
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