Ocean misinformation has the power to do more harm than good. There are many people working hard every day to restore ocean health and sustainably manage the ocean. We believe in recognising and rewarding good practices to incentivise change on a global scale.
We're combatting ocean misinformation by supporting ocean literacy efforts. By taking a fact and evidence-based approach to learning, we can empower and inspire young minds to take positive action to protect our ocean.
You'll find our fact-check below, and you can also find a list of fact-checking of Seaspiracy by the University of Washington.
Sustainable fishing does exist and helps protect our oceans.
The Seaspiracy film on Netflix raises a wide range of issues relating to our oceans, including questioning the credibility of the sustainable seafood movement and, in particular, our organisation, the Marine Stewardship Council. While we agree more attention needs to be given to the crisis of overfishing, we do want to set the record straight on some of the misleading claims in the film:
Fact check: "There is no such thing as sustainable fishing."
This is wrong. One of the amazing things about our oceans is that fish stocks can recover and replenish if they are managed carefully for the long term. Examples of where this has happened, and stocks have come back from the brink include the Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Oceans or the recovery of Namibian hake after years of overfishing by foreign fleets and the increase in some of our major tuna stocks globally. And what is even more amazing is that if we take care of our fish stocks – they take care of us. Research shows that fish stocks that are well-managed and sustainable are also more productive in the long term, meaning there is more seafood for our growing global population, which is set to reach 10 billion by 2050.
Fact check: "MSC certification is too easy and not credible."
The reform of fishing practices and the growth of the sustainable seafood movement is something that the MSC is very proud to have played a part in, along with many other partners and organisations. There are more than 400 MSC-certified fisheries around the world. This certification process is not carried out by the MSC – it is independent of us and carried out by expert assessment bodies. It is an entirely transparent process, and NGOs and others have multiple opportunities to provide input. All our assessments can be viewed online at Track a Fishery. Only fisheries that meet the rigorous requirements of our Standard get certified. Contrary to what the filmmakers say, certification is not an easy process, and some fisheries spend many years improving their practices in order to reach our standards. In fact, our analysis shows that the vast majority of fisheries that carry out pre-assessments against our criteria do not meet these and need to make significant improvements to gain certification.
Fact check: "MSC is funded by industry and is not independent."
The MSC is an independent non-profit that was set up by WWF and Unilever more than 20 years ago because of concern about overfishing. We are not a commercial enterprise, and we do not receive any income from fisheries or from the third-party certification of fisheries.
Our income is derived from two sources: charitable donations from foundations and licensing of our blue ecolabel, which is used by companies in the supply chain, such as food producers, supermarkets and restaurants, to identify MSC-certified seafood. The use of our ecolabel is voluntary, and only a fraction of seafood coming from certified sustainable fisheries bears our ecolabel.
The MSC is entirely transparent about its market-based funding model. We believe consumer demand for sustainable seafood products helps to drive reform of the fishing industry, incentivising the take-up of sustainable fishing practices. All of the income from licensing use goes back into our programme of work. This includes, for example, providing grants through our Ocean Stewardship Fund to support fisheries in the developing world.
Fact check: "MSC certified fisheries have unacceptable levels of bycatch."
In fact, fisheries certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard must provide evidence that they are actively minimising bycatch. Fisheries that need to improve in this area can set goals that they have to meet in order to keep their certificates or risk being suspended. We believe the Icelandic fishery mentioned in Seaspiracy falls into this latter category. It was suspended from the programme because of bycatch issues and only allowed back into the programme when they had been resolved. There are numerous positive examples of MSC-certified fisheries introducing innovations to protect marine life, such as modifying gear type to decrease turtle bycatch or adding LED lights to increase the selectivity of catch. Among some notable achievements by MSC-certified fisheries is a rock lobster fishery in Australia that reduced its bycatch of sea lions and a hake fishery in South Africa that reduced its bycatch of albatross by 99%.
Sustainable fishing helps protect our oceans and us
While we disagree with much of what the Seaspiracy documentary-makers say, one thing we do agree with is that there is a crisis of overfishing in our oceans. However, millions around the world rely on seafood for their protein needs. With the global population set to reach 10 billion by 2050, the need to harness our natural resources more responsibly is more urgent than ever. Sustainable fishing has a vital role to play in securing those resources.
Watch Mission Save the Ocean
We're on a mission to save the ocean. Meet the people around the world working tirelessly to end overfishing in this Nat Geo documentary, Mission: Save the Ocean.
