A private-sector sustainable fishing initiative.

• Author: McGinn, Anne Platt
• Position: Environmental Intelligence

In response to dwindling fish stocks worldwide, a seafood distributor is teaming up with an environmental group to create economic incentives for sustainable fishing. The U.K. branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Anglo-Dutch Unilever - one of the world's largest manufacturers of seafood products - agreed in April to develop a fisheries eco-labeling system and to share the costs of the set-up process.

Over the next two years, WWF and Unilever will consult with scientists, environmentalists, and representatives from government and industry to define sustainable fishing criteria. Participating fishers will probably be required to specify where and how fish are caught. The system may include more selective fishing gear, satellite monitoring of vessels, and genetic sampling of the catch to verify its origin. Labeling and implementation will be provided by an independent Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), similar to the timber industry's Forest Stewardship Council (see "Labeling Wood," page 29). Unilever has agreed to sell only MSC-approved seafood products by the year 2005.

This approach is a major break with existing regulations, which generally come into play only after fish are caught and therefore tend to encourage overfishing. The current European Union quota system, for instance, specifies size and quantity restrictions that apply only at the dock, where fish are unloaded and sold, but not during the actual fishing process. Fishers therefore haul in everything they can, sort the catch, and dump the portion that doesn't make the quotas. The practice is called "hoovering" because fishers practically vacuum an area of water clean of marine life.

The North Sea and some other areas are already seeing an important change in fishing practices, which should make the...