State of the Salmon - MSC Initiative

MSC Initiative:
Marine Stewardship Council Assessment of Pacific Salmon

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the principal eco-label certifying the sustainability of commercial fisheries worldwide. To date, MSC has certified 22 commercial fisheries; another 30 are under review including British Columbia, and California salmon. There are now more than 370 MSC labeled products sold in 26 countries. While consumer awareness of the MSC eco-label appears to be increasing, many consumers and stakeholders remain unaware of the important management performance results of the MSC assessments that are found within the certification documents. Although MSC reports are publicly available, they are often lengthy and laden with technical jargon. Thus, State of the Salmon has initiated a project called the Visual MSC to map and visualize the MSC assessment results for broad public understanding.

Launch Visual MSC

The State of the Salmon supports rigorous and scientifically credible third party assessments of commercial salmon fisheries. Third party assessments, if properly executed, can improve public understanding of the status of salmon fisheries as well as encourage best management and sustainable fishing practices. Since 2004, the State of the Salmon has completed the following activities to monitor and review the various Pacific salmon fishery assessments and offer constructive suggestions on how to advance the MSC standard.

Completed review and formal recommendations about MSC assessment of California Chinook
Completed review and formal recommendations about MSC recertification of Alaska salmon
Completed review and formal recommendations of hatchery scoring guidelines in all salmon assessments
Comments and proposed recommendations for MSC's Quality and Consistency Project with regards to enhancement fisheries
Coordinated expert stakeholder workshop on socio-economic indicators of salmon sustainability; completed and disseminated a workshop report that offers potential socio-economic standards for future MSC salmon assessments
Created the Visual MSC web tool in order to visualize the results of the MSC assessments of Alaska and BC salmon as well as increase public awareness and participation in MSC certification process

It is our hope that critical review of MSC scoring guidelines coupled with innovative ways of visualizing fisheries assessments will help increase public awareness and participation in the salmon MSC certification process for British Columbia and enhance public understanding of salmon management performance in general. Ultimately, we believe this will bring us closer to our vision of full public disclosure on the condition of salmon stocks across the North Pacific.