Sea – food = ?

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) held their big event in Singapore today. They are turning 20 this year!

The WWF and the MSC go way back. We still work very closely as well.

As a sustainable seafood vegetarian (pesco-lacto-ovo vegan) I’ve always been a fan of this certification system to promote and identify sustainable seafood.

Why is sustainable seafood even a thing anyway?

Picture the following case of the tragedy of the commons:

A group of 10 fishermen fish from a single lake daily. With individual fishing lines, they catch 10 fish per day on average per person. One day, one guy bought a big fishing net and started catching 100 fish per day. Others saw this and of course were outraged. So they went to buy nets as well.

Now the rate of depletion of fish in the lake has changed from 100 fish per day to 1000, but the reproduction rate is not catching up.

What do you think happens if the fishermen did not step down their game?

This is in fact becoming our reality. We may soon be left with seas without seafood.

Commons are resources available to all, but managed and provided by no one in particular. When the resources are exhausted, nobody wins. Not even that first guy who got the net before it was cool.

Next time you purchase seafood, look out for MSC (caught) and ASC (grown) certified seafood. The MSC and ASC are there to make sure we have food in the sea in the future. We have these institutions to literally manage the commons.

The MSC and ASC ensure that the way the fisheries and aquacultures are run are sustainable, and that fish stock and oceans are kept from irreversible harm.

Extra side perk: with all the falsification emerging in the market, you can rest assured that MSC and ASC certified seafood are what they claim to be with traceable provenance.

m.