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The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has announced it is providing funding of €5.6m to its Ocean Stewardship Fund this year.
The announcement was made on 10 June by MSC Chief Executive Rupert Howes, speaking at the organisation's side event at last week's UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, titled "Towards a Blue Food Future: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainable Fishing for Food Security, Governance, and Global Collaboration".
"Increasing funding to support sustainable fishing is essential. SDG 14 remains the least funded Sustainable Development Goal, receiving less than 0.01% of total sustainable development funding," the organisation stated in a press release announcing the funding pledge.
The Ocean Stewardship Fund was launched by MSC in 2019, and since then it has awarded more than €7.7 million to support over 200 fisheries and projects worldwide, almost 90 of which are located in developing economies, the MSC said. The Fund provides grants for fishery improvements, as well as funding research on bycatch reduction, protecting marine habitats, and the effects of climate change.
The MSC channels 5% of annual royalties from MSC-certified product sales to the fund, combined with third-party donations.
Initiatives funded in 2025 include a hake trawl and longline fishery project in Namibia focused on reducing harmful encounters with Cape fur seals by using Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology.
Another key project funded this year aims to develop a science-based harvest strategy for five MSC-certified albacore tuna fisheries in the South Atlantic, described as "a unique multi-stakeholder inter-governmental collaboration".
"By targeting long-term sustainability and resilience, this project will create a replicable model for the management of albacore tuna stocks," MSC said.
