Marine Stewardship Council to Develop Sustainable Seaweed Standard

14 May 2014 --- The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is expanding its sustainability standard to include seaweed. This will be the first time the MSC has extended its sustainability standard beyond wild-capture fish and invertebrate fisheries.

“With global seaweed fishery production increasing, and demand for MSC certification of seaweed harvesting increasing, the MSC has recognised the importance of having a standard that rewards those that are harvesting seaweed sustainably and also provides a benchmark for improvement,” the MSC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, David Stone, Standards Communication Manager, told FoodIngredientsFirst that 35 countries are currently engaged in commercial seaweed harvesting and the top wild harvesting countries (by tonnage) are Chile, China, Norway and Japan. “Wild capture and cultivated production of seaweeds have globally increased through time,” he said. “Last available data from FAO (2013) estimated a global production in 2011 of 21 million tonnes, which represent the all-time maximum yield, of which around 5% corresponds to wild seaweed harvest.”

Seaweeds are exploited for uses such as fertiliser and as a source of various extracts but human consumption remains the greatest value earner for the industry, Stone explained. He also noted that much of the world’s wild harvest is brown seaweed. “This may be because the red seaweed species we use to produce nori and those to produce carrageenan are cultivated; as are half of the red seaweed species we use to produce agar. But none of the brown seaweed species we need to produce alginate are cultivated (McHugh, 2003). No green seaweeds feature as large fisheries, this may be because we have fewer uses for them.”

As a marine resource, wild-harvest and enhanced seaweed fisheries fall within the scope of the standard, which excludes only fisheries that target reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals, and fisheries employing explosives and poison.
The draft proposal is expected to be available for consultation in late 2014. When complete, it will be the first global standard for sustainable seaweed.

A sustainable seaweed fishery needs the same level of management and monitoring as an equivalent animal fishery, with both requiring stock assessments and harvest control rules. However, sustainable best practice for seaweed fisheries is not yet as well developed as it is for other types of fishery; the MSC will therefore be conducting further research to identify indicators of sustainability for both stock status and ecosystem impact.

“Like our current fisheries standard, our seaweed standard will be a voluntary assessment process, which can be used either as a reward for those fisheries already harvesting seaweed sustainably and as a benchmark for others to improve towards,” said Stone. “Seaweeds are a key component of an ecosystem. They don’t just move energy through the system but they create energy and input into the system. Therefore, changes to the seaweed stock status have much more profound effects than merely trophic cascades.

“Seaweeds are habitat forming for many species of fish, birds and other marine life, which means that overharvesting would have direct and important effect on habitat in form and function. So a sustainable seaweed fishery will need to recognise the impact it is having both on the target seaweed stock, as well as the wider marine environment.”

Stone noted that a number of seaweed harvesters and other stakeholders, specifically across EU, Canada and Latin America, have already expressed interest in the MSC standard, and have directly asked MSC to explore the possibility of joining the program. “It is the MSC’s hope that as seaweed production increases, it is done in a way that secures stocks and so supplies are safeguarded for future generations.”

Seaweed can be used as a food source, both for humans and as a substantial feedstock for biofuel production, it is found in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and also as an ingredient in fertilizers.