The Marine Stewardship Council Programme - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 89

4.3.2 Implementing the programme

Once a fishery client has decided to apply for assessment against the MSC standard,
it appoints an independent certification body to provide a brief evaluation of the
likelihood of the fishery meeting the MSC standard. This pre-assessment and its
findings are confidential and allow the fishery to make changes, if necessary, to
improve its chances of success in a full assessment.
After the pre-assessment, a client fishery can choose to go forward into the more
detailed and thorough full assessment process, discontinue with the assessment al-
together, or take time out to implement necessary improvements identified during
pre-assessment, such as the need to reduce bycatch, develop an environmental risk
assessment or undertake a new stock assessment, to ensure the fishery will be more
likely to pass the full assessment. In some cases fisheries will implement signifi-
cant improvements between the pre- and full assessment. It is at this point, as MSC
contributes to creating a market that increasingly only wants sustainable seafood,
that the greatest environmental gains are likely to be delivered. The challenge for
the MSC is how to monitor and present these gains - which can include, for exam-
ple, academic research projects to improve understanding of fish stocks, improved
training for crews (e.g. to recognise endangered species), changes to fishing areas
or times and changes in the way that fishing gear is used so that its impact on
marine habitats is minimised - given the confidential nature of pre-assessments.
After the fishery enters full assessment, the entire process becomes very transparent
and inclusive (Figure 4.1).
In undertaking a full assessment, certification bodies follow the detailed require-
ments set out in the MSC's Fishery Certification Methodology (FCM). Key stages
include as follows:

Selecting the assessment team: These are the independent experts recruited by
the certification body to assess the fishery. They are usually chosen for their
knowledge of specific issues affecting the fishery.
Defining the 'assessment tree': Following the 3 principles and 23 criteria set out
in the MSC standard for sustainable fishing, the assessment team drills down into
each criteria to identify specific performance indicators that reflect the unique
circumstances of the fishery. An assessment tree could, for example, have a total
of 80-100 performance indicators. For each performance indicator, the team
will also define scoring guideposts, against which the fishery's performance is
measured.
Peer review and stakeholder consultation on the draft report: The certification
body assembles the assessment information into a single draft report which,
following peer review, is published on the MSC's website.
Publishing the final report and determination: The certification body incorpo-
rates any changes generated through public consultation and publicly determines
if the fishery meets the MSC standard.