Marine Conservation Society – Good Fish Guide – Wild capture
Global
What is it?
The Marine Conservation Society is a marine conservation charity, working to solve the climate crisis, protect marine wildlife, and clean up our ocean.
The Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide is a rating system that allows users to discover whether their seafood choices are affecting the environment.
- Stock or Species status – the state of the stock i.e. stock size (the total weight of mature or breeding adults) and fishing pressure measured against recommended safe levels or reference points;
- Management – an assessment of the measures, monitoring, surveillance, and enforcement in place to ensure the stock is well maintained and the impacts of the fishery mitigated appropriately. Our assessment of management also includes consideration of whether the fishery is already certified as being sustainable by other bodies (such as the Marine Stewardship Council) and whether the fishery is in a Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP); and,
- Capture method and ecological effects – an assessment of the impacts of the capture method on non-target species (bycatch), and the wider ecosystem, and measures implemented to mitigate them. This includes whether the fishery is operating within a marine protected area (MPA), and is compatible or not with the Conservation Objectives, and legal requirements of the site.
- Dark green = best choice;
- Light green = good choice;
- Yellow = ok;
- Orange = fishery requires improvement;
- Red = fish to avoid.
What is it?
Wild capture ratings for June 2018 are based on three criteria:
Each criterion including feed is scored and color-classified:
An overall rating of Green (Best choice); Orange (OK – Needs improvement); and Red (Fish to avoid) is also provided
Learn more here.