The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is making temporary changes to its requirements to give assessors alternative ways of checking that fishers and suppliers have met its standards for protecting fish stocks and the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These changes include an extension for remote audits, more time to make improvements to meet the MSC Fisheries Standard, and a temporary pathway for supply chain businesses that need to be audited for the risk of forced or child labour.
“To support producers and suppliers of certified sustainable seafood while maintaining the integrity of our program, we are making some further changes to our requirements (referred to as derogations),” the MSC said.
Remote audits extended
The MSC has extended the use of remote audits until 28 March 2022, but only if it is required because of COVID-19 restrictions or health concerns. Onsite visits should resume where possible, with extra checks remaining in place for initial assessments not carried out in person, said the organisation.
As COVID-19 restrictions mean that some of the improvements that fisheries are required to make as a condition of their MSC Fisheries Standard certification may take longer to achieve, the deadline for improvements related to actions or decisions by external management agencies will be extended by 12 months. It does not change the length of any certificates, with fisheries still needing to be reassessed at the scheduled time to stay certified.
COVID-19 has also made onsite audits of labour practices particularly challenging, as these cannot be easily replaced by remote audits. Supply chain businesses that need to be audited for the risk of forced or child labour can proceed with an audit through a recognised labour programme or complete a detailed self-assessment instead. If certificate holders choose the self-assessment route, they will give the MSC the right to commission an independent labour audit of their sites. Reports will be due at their next annual audit scheduled after 28 May 2021.
