Questions asked over sustainable fish tick logo
Serious questions have been raised over the charity that provides a ‘‘blue tick’’ to fish products to ensure shoppers can support sustainable fishing.
A recent report states the Marine Stewardship Council has ‘‘troubling systematic flaws’’ in its certification scheme and uses ‘‘questionable practices’’.
This could make for unsustainable fisheries to gain the coveted blue tick, The Times reported.
This brings into questions Hoki in New Zealand, which has been MSC certified since 2001. Hoki is widely used by McDonald’s restaurants.
This was despite concerns over the dumping of vast amounts of unwanted fish and the destructive bottom-trawling method used to catch it.
In the report by World Wide Fund for Nature, which helped found MSC as a charity 20 years ago and is one its key stakeholders, it said MSC had a ‘‘financial interest in certification outcomes’’.
The number of products with MSC’s label had increased from less than 1,000 ten years ago to more than 20,000.
The report in question focussed on WWF’s experience when it tried to object to Indian Ocean tuna businesses gaining MSC certification.
Independent stakeholders, including WWF, were permitted to make objections to certification but out of 19 made by July 2015, only one was upheld.
Andrew Agnew, MSC’s science standards director, told the Times, the MSC had a valued and longstanding partnership with WWF.
‘‘We are disappointed by the unsubstantiated claims made by this paper and find them at odds with WWF’s global engagement and work with the MSC.’’ He denied to the Times there was a conflict of interest over its logo licensing income and also denied that it had weakened standards.
Greenpeace New Zealand’s ocean campaigner Oliver Knowles said the report by WWF seriously damages the reputation of the blue tick logo.
‘‘MSC has serious questions to answer as the criticisms WWF make in their report are very serious, they suggest MSC are intervening to try and secure certification on products that should be. It should be of great concern to consumers.’’