Full length articleAdopting Marine Stewardship Council certification of Western Australian fisheries at a jurisdictional level: The benefits and challenges

- Western Australia's commercial fisheries (∼50 fisheries) have completed Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pre-assessment.
- The pre-assessments were conducted using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM)-bioregional approach.
- This approach identified similarities between fisheries and highlighted issues with the MSC standard for data-limited and multispecies fisheries.
- Despite the challenges, the initiative has generated improvements to governance, consultation and assessment processes.
- WA now has a total of seven fisheries either MSC certified or in full assessment.

In 2012, the Western Australian (WA) State Government initiated a four year project to provide the state's fisheries the opportunity to obtain third party certification. The Government was seeking a range of benefits from this initiative such as scientifically robust, independent assessments of fisheries sustainability and management and improved community support for commercial fishing. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was selected as the preferred certification scheme due to its rigorous approach and strong market acceptance. The project commenced with the pre-assessment of the state's commercial fisheries (∼50 fisheries) using an ecosystem based fishery management-bioregional approach to encompass the wide variety of species, gears and locations around the state. Given the number and variety of fisheries examined the pre-assessments were conducted using a bioregional approach, with multiple fisheries assessed in each of five marine bioregions. Applying the MSC standard to such a diverse range of fisheries, many of which are small scale, data limited, multispecies or multisector, presented several challenges. However, the bioregional approach enabled the identification of common issues and focussed attention on possible refinements to the MSC scoring guidelines for these types of fisheries. Despite the challenges, this initiative has already generated improvements to governance, consultation and assessment processes. It is anticipated that as the number of certified fisheries in WA increases, public confidence and the social licence for commercial fishing operations will be enhanced, enabling their ongoing access to these public resources.