The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has responded to the claim, outlined in a Current Biology article, that fish had been mislabelled as being from certified sustainable stock.
The article said that some were simply not Chilean sea bass (Dissostichus eleginoides), and even amongst those samples that were the right species, “significant genetic differences” were found between the retail sample of fish and the certified stock population, indicating that uncertified fish were inserted into the MSC supply chain.
The allegation is very clear because it focuses, in this case, on the only certified fishery of Chilean sea bass, a population in waters surrounding the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia and the nearby plateau at Shag Rocks.
"Naturally, we are very concerned about the results in Current Biology." says Amy Jackson, deputy standards director at MSC.
The MSC says that samples of Dissostichus eleginoides taken in late 2008 and early 2009 were analysed by the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and the results showed that the MSC ecolabelled products tested had come from the MSC certified fishery.
Ms Jackson added that since the MSC’s system requires full traceability checks at every point, “it will allow the organisation to identify if any breach has occurred and pinpoint exactly where in the supply chain it happened”. If proven, it could result in the suspension or withdrawal of a Chain of Custody certificate. “We hope to work with the authors of the paper along with other experts in this field to achieve this goal," said Ms Jackson.
