The Marine Stewardship Council has announced it intends to channel funding worth €5.6m into its Ocean Stewardship Fund, which supports fisheries in advancing sustainability, by 2030.
The announcement was made at last week’s United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC). SDG 14 remains the least funded United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, receiving less than 0.01% of total sustainable development funding.
Since its creation in 2019, the Ocean Stewardship Fund has put over €7.7 million into support for more than 200 fisheries and projects worldwide, including nearly 90 in developing economies. These initiatives range from marine wildlife protection to the trial of new technologies and the promotion of more sustainable fishing practices.
In 2025, a hake trawl and longline fishery in Namibia was one of a selection of projects that received funding to work with scientists and engineers to deploy the use of Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology, to minimise potentially harmful interactions by Cape fur seals with fishing gear.
A unique multi-stakeholder inter-governmental collaboration also received support through this year’s Ocean Stewardship Fund. Five MSC certified albacore tuna fisheries will work with NGOs and inter-continental agencies to develop and implement a science-based stock-wide harvest strategy for albacore tuna, a highly migratory species. By targeting long-term sustainability and resilience, this project will create a replicable model for the management of albacore tuna stocks.
This commitment contributes to the $8.7billion ocean-related financial commitments announced by French President Emmanuel Macron during the Blue Economy and Finance Forum.
