Success for Sustainable Fishing and Seafood?

This blogging journey is almost over! So bittersweet.

This week’s focus: successful efforts (to some degree) in promoting sustainable fishing and seafood!

Let’s turn to the U.S., specifically the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) – a legislative cornerstone in regulating U.S. marine fisheries. Enacted in 1976 in response to heavy overfishing in their waters, especially by illegal foreign vessels, the MSA stretched the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from 12 to 200 nautical miles* (NM) from the coast, keeping out foreign fisheries.

Thinking back to my Africa posts, we see how affluence affects the effectiveness of a country’s efforts in countering overfishing. Somalia faces the same problem today despite declaring its EEZ out to 200 NM. Weak policing of waters means that this strategy has got no teeth there – foreign vessels just aren’t deterred.

Back to the U.S., the fight against overfishing wasn’t over. The problem shifted to local fishers, who seized the ‘niches’ of the now absent foreign vessels and ramped up their catches to unsustainable levels. It wasn’t until twenty years later that the MSA was amended and became more effective. Today, it is widely seen as a largely successful conservation policy, having succeeded in rebuilding certain fish stocks.

Of course, that is not to say that the MSA is flawless. For one thing, it’s been criticized for the use of obsolete stock assessments to set catch limits – definitely an area for improvement.

Next up, let’s look at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international NGO that promotes sustainable seafood through the use of its ecolabel and fishery certification program. Fisheries are assessed independently to the Fisheries Standard according to three principles:

Seafood from certified fisheries may be labelled with this blue label:

One notable MSC-certified fishery is the U.S. Alaska pollock fishery, which apparently has one of the best scores for sustainability among other MSC-certified fisheries! That’s heartening because the fishery – the second largest worldwide – supports countless livelihoods.

But hold up. I think it’s crucial to note that just because something is certified sustainable, doesn’t mean it really is! In 2017, a fishing vessel was arrested for unlicensed (aka illegal) fishing in Liberia – not something you’d expect from a vessel that’s sustainably-certified, specifically under “Friend of the Sea” criteria for the sustainable fishing of Black Tiger Prawns! The potential deceit disgusts me (because I value traceability) – if the trawler did get away with illegal shrimping, consumers would end up eating seafood that’s labelled ‘sustainable’ but actually isn’t.

Naturally, this made me more sceptical of ecolabels in general. Let’s see if MSC is as rosy as it appears:

One reason for the criticism: A leaked WWF report revealed that the MSC engaged in “questionable practices”, undermining the certification threshold for fisheries.

Urgh, is it so hard to eat actually sustainable sustainably-certified seafood? Apparently so. But then again, I would think that it’s not easy for the MSC, or any ecolabel, in fact, to fulfil all expectations. The issue of sustainable seafood is multifaceted after all. Hopefully, the MSC will be determined to challenge itself and strive for continuous improvement.

I have so much more to say, but I’ll have to leave it for next week. T^T

Sea ya!

*1 nautical mile = 1.51 miles