The Marine Stewardship Council Programme - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 85

Agriculture Organization) Voluntary Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish (FAO
2005) This means the MSC embodies the following objectives:

third-party fishery assessments utilising scientific evidence;
transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection pro-
cedures; and
standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and manage-
ment practices.

.

The MSC certification programme is voluntary and is open to all fisheries, what-
ever their type, size or location. It is up to the independent certifiers to determine
whether or not the applicant fishery meets the MSC standard. If a fishery does, a
certificate is awarded for 5 years subject to annual surveillance audits, which can if
necessary be supplemented by additional on-site visits and inspections. Fisheries
can lose their certificates if they are found to no longer be meeting the standard.
The first fishery to complete its assessment - the Western Australian rock lobster
fishery - was certified in March 2000 and recertified in 2006. There are now 22
fully certified fisheries around the world. These range from the enormous Alaska
pollock fishery (see Chapter 13), the world's largest whitefish fishery certified in
2004, to small-scale community-based and developing world fisheries such as the
Baja California lobster fishery in Mexico (see Chapter 12). Interest in certification
increased significantly in 2006 and 2007, and the MSC now estimates that there are
about 60 individual fisheries currently engaged at some stage in the independent
assessment process (Table 4.1). Together, these fisheries account for about 7% of
the total wild edible fish catch - about 4 million tonnes of seafood including 42%
of the world's wild salmon catch and nearly one-third of the world's annual prime
whitefish catch.
With growing concern about fraud, mislabelling and pirate fishing, the trace-
ability of a product is becoming an increasingly important consideration for the
global seafood industry. To address this concern, MSC requires that all ecolabelled
products are subject to a thorough and complete 'chain of custody' or traceability
audit before the seafood product can carry the MSC label.
Chain of custody ensures that all fish products carrying the MSC ecolabel are
part of an audited supply chain and can be traced back to a certified fishery. All
companies trading MSC-labelled fish must be certified as meeting MSC's chain
of custody standard. This ensures, for example, that fish wholesalers, processors
and packers keep MSC-certified fish separate from non-certified fish and apply the
MSC ecolabel correctly. This is a vital assurance for fish buyers and consumers,
and is key to maintaining consumer confidence in the MSC ecolabel.
The MSC operates a third-party certification and labelling programme (see Chap-
ter 1). MSC does not certify anything and has no financial interest in the certification
process, either of fisheries or chain of custody. This is essential for credibility and
also, as noted above, is a requirement of the FAO minimum guidelines for cred-
ible marine ecolabelling and certification programmes. MSC's impartiality as a