The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is investing $2.2 million in 85 projects worldwide to develop sustainable fishing solutions.
Through its Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF), MSC is funding Non Governmental Organizations, scientists, and fisheries to bolster research, improve harvest strategies, and reduce harmful encounters with large marine life.
OSF has funded a fishery in Namibia to work with scientists and engineers to implement a new Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology (a noise-making machine that repels marine animals) to prevent Cape fur seals from getting caught in fishing gear or struck by boats.
Through refined neuroscientific methods, the startle tech avoids damaging marine animals’ hearing. The project’s executors hope to gather data on seal encounters throughout implementation to learn how to best deploy the technology in other areas.
“For some top predators, particularly certain marine mammal species, bycatch and gear entanglement in fisheries is hugely impactful,” said Dr. Thomas Götz, who is conducting the research with local partners. “This technology could offer a sustainable solution to long-standing human-wildlife conflicts and help balance human need for food and livelihoods with wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship.”
Ocean Stewardship Fund is also supporting five albacore tuna fisheries. Partnering with NGOs and intercontinental agencies, the fisheries will implement scientifically refined harvest strategies that are more responsive to the albacore’s migratory patterns. Executed across the fisheries’ total stock, the project will create a scientific, replicable framework for sustainable harvesting.
“This support from MSC will help us to facilitate expansion of rigorously tested harvest strategies to South Atlantic albacore, a valuable commercial stock.” Said Shana Miller, Project Director for International Fisheries Conservation at The Ocean Foundation. “Stronger management and control of large-scale fishing, including with science-based harvest strategies, will transform fisheries management, helping to protect marine biodiversity and ensuring future sustainability in a changing ocean.”
Ocean Stewardship Fund is able to support projects worldwide using money from MSC’s sales. MSC is now in its sixth year of committing 5% of annual product royalties to the OSF, and says it only sells catch from fisheries that have met the rigorous standards of its blue ecolabel.
The Ocean Stewardship Fund has invested more than $8.8 million in fishing and ocean projects worldwide since 2019, with 90 in developing economies benefiting from its support. In collaboration with strategic partners and mission-aligned businesses, OSF has supported over thirty fisheries across Mexico, Peru, Chile, China, Indonesia, South Africa, India, and Southern Europe this year to shift to sustainable management practices.
