Ruth Gallo – MSC / ASC Chain of Custody Officer, ME Certifications for the Marine Stewardship Council / Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

    MSc in Environment and Resource Management, University of Essex. BSc in Marine Biology, with experience in environmental impact assessment of rivers and fisheries quality control. Currently a Marine Stewardship Council, Chain of Custody Certification auditor, assuring that fish sourced from MSC certified sustainable fisheries, stays certified throughout the supply chain.

    Title: The Marine Stewardship Council and the role of Chain of Custody in global sustainable fisheries

    Synopsis: Failure to control the three-way expansion of fishing in the oceans has led to the serial depletion of many marine fish populations. Market-based efforts designed to make consumers more aware of marine species depletion encourage them to demand sustainable seafood and fisheries management improvement. Founded in 1997 as a joint project between World Wildlife Fund, one of the world’s largest environmental organizations, and Unilever, a British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the largest eco-labeling scheme for certified sustainable fisheries. In order to get certified, fishery clients appoint an accredited third-party conformity assessment body (CAB) to assess their practices against the MSC standard. The process involves a pre-assessment evaluation of the fishery, leading to a full assessment and once the certification is obtained, further annual surveillance is carried out to assess the continuity of compliance with the MSC certification requirements. After a Fishery is MSC certified, proving its sustainable origin, the commercialization begins. The Chain of Custody section of the Marine Stewardship Council makes sure that certified, sustainable fish is not mixed up or substituted by non-sustainable fish by checking all the relevant documents from point of purchase to point of sale throughout the supply chain.

 

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