Victor Restrepo is the vice president for science at the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation and a member of the Marine Stewardship Council’s technical advisory board.
In the world’s largest tuna fishing grounds, an important initiative is underway to ensure fisheries can meet the newest requirements of the leading seafood sustainability certification standard – the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries standard.
The MSC fisheries standard is used to assess if a fishery is well-managed and sustainable. A fishery maintains MSC certification for five years before it is required to be reassessed. In October 2022, the MSC released a revised, improved standard. Fisheries that were certified prior to the launch of the new standard have five years to modernize their fisheries management practices to be in line with the new requirements if they want to maintain certification…