Fact Sheet: WWF and The Marine Stewardship Council New Hope for World Fisheries
January 12th, 1998
Fish have never been more popular as seafood, nor more
threatened as marine wildlife:
- At least 60 percent of the world's 200 most valuable fish species
are either overfished or fished to the limit. Some, like Atlantic halibut and
bluefin tuna, have been fished to the brink of commercial extinction.
- Nearly one-quarter of the world's marine catch--including fish,
marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds--is thrown back into the ocean
dead or dying.
- Governments worldwide pay tens of billions of dollars each year
to subsidize an industry that catches only US$70 billion worth of fish.
- The history of fishery management is replete with spectacular
failures. Economic and political expediencies have condemned many
fisheries to ruin. In some areas, chronic overfishing has resulted in the
loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
- To reverse this crisis, we must develop long-term solutions that
are environmentally necessary and then, through economic incentives,
make them politically feasible. To this end, WWF formed a conservation
partnership with Unilever in 1996 to create market incentives for
sustainable fishing by establishing an independent Marine Stewardship
Council (MSC).
WWF endorses the Marine Stewardship Council
- The Marine Stewardship Council is now an independent
non-profit, non-governmental organization, headquartered in London.
The mission of the MSC is to work for sustainable marine fisheries by
promoting responsible, environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial
and economically viable fisheries practices while maintaining the
biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes of the marine
environment.
- The Marine Stewardship Council is in the process of establishing
a set of globally-agreed principles and criteria for sustainable fishing by
holding a series of international workshops designed to refine and
strengthen these standards, developing a process for international
implementation and conducting test cases for certification of fisheries.
- Only fisheries meeting these standards will be eligible for
certification by independent, certifying firms accredited by the MSC.
Products from fisheries certified to MSC standards ultimately will be
marked with an on-pack logo. This will allow consumers to select fish
products that they know come from sustainable, well-managed sources,
thus creating a market incentive for industry to shift to sustainable
fishing practices.
- The MSC is actively seeking the widest possible involvement from
individuals and organizations committed to seeking new solutions to the
decline of marine fisheries and securing the future of these important
resources. As one of its advocates, WWF endorses the Marine
Stewardship Council and continues to actively support the MSC's efforts
around the world.
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