The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a GMC project partner. MSC is an international non-profit organization that has established and manages an ecolabeling program to recognize and reward well-managed and sustainable fisheries.  MSC reviews and develops the MSC Fisheries Standard in consultation with scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups.  The MSC is the only wild-capture fisheries certification and ecolabelling program that meets best practice requirements set by both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and ISEAL, the global membership association for sustainability standards.

By 2017, over 12% of the world’s wild caught seafood was MSC certified.  More than 300 fisheries in 34 countries have been independently assessed to be fishing sustainably, and have made hundreds of improvements in order to achieve and maintain certification – contributing to more abundant and stable fish stocks, minimizing bycatch and impacts on habitats, improving scientific knowledge and strengthening management.

Within the framework of the GMC Project, MSC will implement training events and awareness raising campaigns with supply chain actors within project fisheries on sustainable seafood certification and MSC standards.  In addition, the majority of the project’s FIPs, aim to drive measurable improvements in the management of target fisheries in order to achieve full MSC certification.