Friend of the Sea, in response to the recent WWF report on fisheries eco-labels, requests WWF to correct its attitude towards MSC’s alternative seafood certification schemes.
WWF is the founder, sponsor and main supporter of MSC. Consequently, any assessment run or commissioned by WWF, on certification schemes alternative to MSC, is bound to be perceived as a biased analysis and against ethical and fair practices. This type of report is not credible, and the scoring of MSC at 95% and Friend of the Sea at 55% is particularly meaningless as the “criteria points” for the “study” were self-created by WWF.
As further confirmation of the inadequacy of such values, other truly impartial assessments of seafood eco-labels (produced by MRAG and by Greenpeace), lead to only negligible differences in performance between the two main eco-labels.
Friend of the Sea and other seafood eco-labels are an important part of a global effort to achieve fisheries and aquaculture sustainability, motivating the industry to make changes faster and in a verifiable manner. Developing Countries artisanal fisheries and aquaculture, as well as a long list of international seafood companies have chosen Friend of the Sea as a truly industry independent eco-label.
With the aim of reaching the common conservation objectives, Friend of the Sea believes NGOs, including WWF, and certification schemes should collaborate positively avoiding speculation on useless and biased projects comparisons.