MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL, CERTIFIED LIES
16.09.2021
This morning, members of Ocean Rebellion delivered a gift to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as part of their week-long calling out of drivers of ocean degradation, including corrupt and destructive industrial fishing.
The gift arrived by special delivery in the briefcases of three fish headed greenwash detectives. They suspect the MSC has been lying to the public by labelling fish with ‘sustainably caught’ symbols. They delivered some of these fish, with guts, as evidence of this blatant lie. Their briefcases were labelled ‘WAR ON FISH’ and ‘MSC CERTIFIED LIES’ each bearing witness to the MSCs activities. A final case, containing evidence of all the bottom trawlers the MSC has approved, was labelled ‘ECOCIDE’ – an apt description for the industrial fishing methods supported by MSC certification.
Currently the Marine Stewardship Council certifies all fishing methods as sustainable and makes no distinction between industrial fishing methods and artisan fishing methods on its labelling.
Ocean Rebellion demands the MSC stops hoodwinking supermarket shoppers. We demand it Tells the Truth about the destruction bottom trawling, and all industrial fishing, causes to marine life and the sea bed.
Furthermore the Marine Stewardship Council allows its members to obtain their certification by paying to join. Ocean Rebellion declares this is a clear conflict of interest that makes any certification by the MSC null and void. Until the MSC can find a different method of funding we ask shoppers to boycott fish products that bear their logo.
In fact we ask the MSC, and all other certification bodies, to go further and demand a suspension of industrial fishing until the state of our Ocean fish stocks is fully understood, with any fisherfolk affected by this suspension receiving compensation from their respective governments.
The three fish detectives called on the MSC but no one was in.
Apparently everyone at the MSC is currently greenwashing from home.
Sophie Miller of Ocean Rebellion says
“We demand that the Marine Stewardship Council tells the truth about destructive fishing methods and immediately stops greenwashing the industry with sustainability lies”
Rob Higgs adds
“The MSC must tell the truth about the depletion of the oceans. Many fish populations are close to extinction, even the government terminology of calling them fish stocks and describing them as ‘not yet fully fished’ implies an industrial perspective on something that we should be looking to protect as if our lives depended on it – because they do.”
Clive Russell says
“Once a species goes extinct it is lost forever, we should not be encouraging fishing methods that allow this to happen. But if we continue to fish on an industrial scale with mega trawlers dragging 4 km nets that catch everything in the sea, then we will simply end up with a sea empty of fish.”
Roc Sandford says
“We have eaten almost all of the wild protein on the land, we are now on track to do the same to the oceans. This means we will leave them empty and depleted of the fish that once swam freely. We must end bottom trawling and industrial fishing now to give fish populations a chance to recover. Because of the carbon stored by marine organisms, marine biodiversity breakdown and the climate emergency are more or less the same thing. We can’t solve one without the other, and killing off the oceans will end any realistic chance of saving the climate and our societies.”
AS THE SEA DIES WE DIE
Photo credits: Guy Reece