Sustainable fisheries

WWF collaborates with partners on boats and with processors, buyers, retailers in seafood markets to transform fishing into sustainable business.

We also advocate with governments to shift decision-making towards sustainable and responsible fishery policies . 

Our view of a long- term, sustainable marine environment is that it is managed in a way that it fully takes into account ecological, scientific and socio-economic criteria. This form of management is called "Ecosystem Based Management".  

What is?

What is?

What’s behind your favourite seafood? / ©: avlxyz / Flickr.com
What’s behind your favourite seafood?
© avlxyz / Flickr.com
To achieve these transformational changes, WWF´s strategy is to:

  • Promote two new elements to obtain good and efficient governance and fisheries management: "an ecosystem based approach of the oceans" and"traceability from boat to plate" that will be fundamental in curbing IUU fishing
  • Raise awareness and increase market demand for sustainable, MSC certified seafood from retailers, processors, buyers and consumers
  • Design and promote new financial mechanisms for the transition to sustainable fisheries.
     

Traceable, certified fish - the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

/ ©: Michael Cockerham/MSC
MSC-certified mackerel for sale on the fish counter of a UK supermarket
© Michael Cockerham/MSC

The easiest way to identify the best environmental choice in seafood is to look out for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo.

Products with this label have been independently assessed according to the MSC standards.

This is so far the only internationally recognized set of environmental principles to assess whether a fishery is well-managed and sustainable.

The MSC currently counts over 2,000 products from 42 certified fisheries carrying the MSC logo and over 100 more currently pursuing certification.


Whitefish certification

- About 3,5 million Mt whitefish are either MSC certified or in process of certification today

- This represents 43% of the total whitefish market (8 million Mt)

More information

/ ©: MSC
MSC logo
© MSC

Video series: Net Gains

Sustainable fisheries in Scotland.

In a blind study, Rob Ogden of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland tested 240 MSC-certified samples bought at supermarkets, restaurants and markets in the US, UK, Japan and Germany. He compared their DNA with validated reference samples. "Nothing came back as anything other than what it should have been," he says.

New Scientist (18 July 2010)

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