The Walton Family Foundation, created in 1987 by WalMart founder Sam Walton, has joined with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Skoll Foundation to fund a $10.85 million investment in the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) through September 2015, with the goal of continuing to build the global market for sustainable seafood.
"It is critical to protect and restore dwindling fish populations around the world. It is equally important to ensure that the fishermen and seafood retailers who depend on those fish can continue to thrive," said Scott Burns, Director of the Environment Program at the Walton Family Foundation. "MSC has established itself as the world leader in driving progress toward healthier fisheries and fishing communities."
A global program with a presence in all the world's oceans, MSC has engaged scientists, seafood industry members, conservation organizations and other experts from around the world to reach consensus on a global fishery sustainability standard and a worldwide traceability standard for sustainable seafood. MSC continues to consult widely in maintaining and operating these rigorous, science-based and transparent certification standards for sustainable fishing and traceability that allow seafood buyers to know at a glance that their fish was caught by a certified sustainable fishery. As a result, there is growing demand worldwide for seafood that is certified as sustainably caught.
Over the past several years, major seafood buyer support for the MSC has grown substantially and the number of fisheries applying to be assessed against the MSC standard has skyrocketed Today, more than 16,000 products in 86 countries bear the MSC logo, 32 times the 500 labeled products in 2007, the year MSC embarked on its recently completed five-year Strategic Plan. There are currently 287 fisheries either certified or in assessment, 13 times the total in 2007. A recent report by Marine Resources
Assessment Group documented measurable improvements in virtually all fisheries certified by the MSC.
