As per the press release MSC has clarified more precautionary requirements for the management of low trophic level fisheries that wish to become MSC-certified. Low trophic level species, such as anchovy, krill and sardine, play a critical role in the world’s oceans. Because of their generally small size and high productivity, and the fact that such species are at the lower end of the food chain, they play a key role in sustaining a wide array of other species and maintaining the wider ecosystem.
Low trophic level fisheries are vital resource for the global fishing sector: over 30 per cent of global wild-capture fishery production is of these small, prolific fish. The new requirements for certifiers are the result of a two year project that included a twelve month stakeholder consultative process examining global best practice.
The MSC’s new requirements to attain certificate could provide much more explicit definitions of acceptable exploitation rates for low trophic level species. These reflect the research findings and further reduce the risk of unsustainable impacts on dependent species. The fisheries need to score at the 60 level (the minimum acceptable to become MSC certified with conditions for additional performance improvement), the fisheries must maintain stocks of key LTL species at levels that protect dependent parts of the ecosystem. These minimum requirements are intended to allow for the additional ecosystem demands on key LTL species.
To meet this requirement the fisheries must adopt a target stock level of at least 40 per cent of the estimated unfished population. In addition to this requirement, it must also ensure that its target stock levels are substantially above the accepted maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for the species. These new requirements must be used by certifiers for all new assessments of low trophic level fisheries after 15 August 2011. Fisheries that fall within the scope of the requirements and which are already certified, or were in assessment before the effective date, must implement the new requirements at re-assessment.
