This document details the methods and data sources for the figures and graphs included in
the Annual Report 2022-23, as well as providing supplementary figures and tables.

If using any data, kindly acknowledge the MSC as the source and provide a download date
and website link. When citing elements of this report, please cite as:
MSC (2023) Supplementary Information to the MSC Annual Report 202223. Marine Stewardship Council, London, UK.
info@msc.org
standards@msc.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
License. The Supplementary Information to the MSC Annual Report is shared under a Creative
Commons license - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Where external data sources are cited, data can be independently verified by accessing
those sources. For internal MSC datasets, these are generated by the MSC Research Teamand Business Intelligence Team, extracting information from MSC Fishery and Chain of
Custody certificate reports and provided by label license holders. Accuracy of the data
extraction is assured by the MSC with sample-based verification. Details on this process areavailable on request.
Reports are authored by and based on assessments carried out by accredited third party
certification bodies, and as such the certification bodies take full responsibility for theaccuracy and truthfulness of their contents, including fishery assessment scores given.

All data used to generate the plots and maps in the report are downloadable from:➢ MSC202223_Annual_Report_Supplementary_Information_data.xlsx

Progress on the water: MSC engaged catch at the end of
the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial (Page 10)
Progress on the water, proportion of all wild marine catch
engaged with MSC (Page 10)
Progress on the water MSC engaged catch at the end of
the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years by different
species groups (Page 27, 29, 31-37, 39)
Map of MSC certified marine catch compared with total
marine catch in each FAO major fishing area (Page 11)
Improvements made in MSC fisheries by the end of March2023 (Page 12, 27, 29, 31-37, 39)
Principle scores for MSC fisheries at initial assessment andfirst reassessment (Page 12)
Volume sold by product type Year (Page 23)
Number of Live MSC labelled consumer Products (Page23)

msccatch

MSC 2023

msccatch

MSC 2023; FAO 2023: Global
capture production 1950-2021
MSC 2023

msccatchfaomapimprovement

MSC 2023; FAO 2023: Global
capture production 1950-2021
MSC 2023

scoreimprove

MSC 2023

liveproductvolume
liveproductcount

MSC 2023
MSC 2023

Assessment
ASI - Assurance
Services International
CAB - Conformity
Assessment Body
CatchCertificate holder
CoC - Chain of Custody

Condition
Default tree
Enhanced fisheryFAO
FAM – Fishery
Assessment
Methodology
Farm

Fishery

Improvement

ISSCAAP
ISSCAAP
Division/GroupLive Products

Assessment is used to refer to the initial certification and recertifications of fisheries.
Assurance Services International, provider of accreditation services for the MSC
program.
Organisation that performs conformity assessment services against the MSC Fisheries
and CoC standards.
In this annual report, the total live weight of a target species caught. The weight at thetime of catch, before processing, for the species that can carry the MSC ecolabel.
An entity which holds a certificate issued by an MSC accredited CAB.
The procedures implemented by organisations purchasing or handling certified
products in the supply chain. These procedures ensure conformity with the MSC Chainof Custody Standard and provide assurance that throughout the supply chain,certified products are segregated from noncertified products and are traceable backto a certified source.
A requirement to achieve outcomes in order to raise a Performance Indicator score to
80 or above.
All versions of the MSC Fishery Certification Requirements since FAM v1 was released
in 2008.
A fishery that includes in its operations some aquaculture methods such as ‘catchand grow’, i.e., juveniles are captured from the wild stock in the same geographic
region and allowed to settle and grow in a relatively controlled environment, such as
rope-grown mussels, or ‘hatch and catch’, i.e., juveniles reared in a hatchery and thenreleased in the wild for sport fishing, such as hatchery-reared salmon.
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
The methodology followed by CABs when assessing conformity against the Fisheries
Standard.
Seaweed farm or production unit is the harvesting unit or farm from which theseaweed is produced (the extent of the production unit is defined explicitly as the
UoA).
The group of harvesters associated with an MSC fishery certificate targeting one stockwith a certain gear type/method/vessel type in a specified area. Note that an MSC
certificate may include more than one species or harvest method, and thus more than
one fishery, according to this definition, and the term ‘fishery’ may be used differently
in other MSC publications or external sources.
An improvement is counted when the score of a fishery component (stock,
method/gear, practice/vessels) is increased to a minimum score of 80 throughclosing a condition.
International Standard Statistical Classification of Aquatic Animals and Plants
Grouping of commercial species based on their taxonomic, ecological and economic
characteristics.
Products sold that have sales recorded against them for the reported year.

MSC
N - Number
P1 - Principle 1
P2 - Principle 2
P3 - Principle 3
PCR - PublicCertification Report
Production unit
Stock

UoA - Unit ofAssessment

UoC - Unit ofCertification
Year
Fiscal year

Marine Stewardship Council
Number of elements or sample size.
Principle 1 of the MSC Fisheries standard, i.e. stock status.
Principle 2 of the MSC Fisheries standard, i.e. environmental status.
Principle 3 of the MSC Fisheries standard, i.e. fishery governance.
The final version of the assessment report, after stakeholder comments to the PCDR
have been taken into account.
The harvesting unit or farm from which the seaweed is produced (the extent of the
production unit is defined explicitly as the UoA).
A wild population of a marine or freshwater species that is harvested by fishers. A
stock ideally corresponds to a biological unit that has distinctive demographic
dynamics and thus is assessed separately from other populations belonging to thesame species. In reality, exact information on the genetic structure of the catch isoften missing, which sometimes leads to erroneously aggregating more than one
population of the same species under the same stock. As more knowledge isaccumulated, stock definitions can be revised, and consequently their stock
assessments.
The sum of all the elements that are assessed for awarding a given certificate. For
fisheries evaluated against the MSC Fisheries Standard, this includes the target
stock(s) being certified, combined with any fleets, or groups of vessels, or individual
fishing operators or other eligible fishers pursuing that same stock using different
methods/gears/practices, as well as the species and ecosystem in the area where thefishery is active.
The target stock(s) and any fleets, groups of vessels, or individual fishing operators,
defined by the fishing method/gear/practice for pursuing that stock, covered by an
MSC fishery certificate.
Calendar year from 1st January of the year to 31st December of the same year
from April 1st of the year to March 31st of the following calendar yearIf any interpretative issues arise in relation to the MSC Fisheries and Chain of CustodyStandards, the text of the English MSC scheme documents will prevail in all instances:➢ MSC Fishery Certification Requirements.
➢ MSC Chain of Custody Certification Requirements.

To show change in time and scope of what MSC fisheries catch, all MSC engaged catch was
extracted and summed from the most recently available data for each snapshot in time.
The total sum of engaged catch for each year included all UoA/ UoC that were either
Certified, Suspended or In Assessment. A single MSC fishery can have many UoA or UoC
that target one or many different species.
When extracting catch data, it was assigned against the UoA/UoC for that fishery to enabledifferent aggregation to be applied (e.g. against the target species, the fishing method/gearor major ocean area(s)). In cases where a report provided a grouped catch, such as a single
figure for many species, the catch was divided equally.

To understand the reach of MSC and provide a sense of scale, MSC engaged marine catch isshown relative to the latest FAO Global Capture Production dataset (2023, covering through2021) to measure proportion of MSC global marine catch by species and marine FAO Major
Fishing Areas. Using the certificate status of the MSC UoA/UoC, the total MSC proportion of
FAO catch is shown along with a breakdown by status.
When assigning catch from MSC reports to all UoA/UoC, it was matched to the target
species and FAO Major Fishing Areas. In cases where a MSC report provided a grouped
catch, such as a single figure for many species, the catch was divided equally. To provide acomparable snapshot in time, the most recent catch from MSC fisheries was associatedwith the most recent fiscal years.

1Marine Stewardship Council, Supplementary Materials to the MSC Annual Report 202223.xlsx, 2023.
http://www.msc.org
2
FAO. Global capture production 1950-2021. License: CC BY–NC–SA 3.0 IGO. Extracted from:https://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics-query/en/capture/capture_quantity. Data of Access: 30–06–2023.

To make a comparison between MSC and FAO data, several rules were applied to eachdataset, and both contain only:• Marine catch. As a marine Standard, the MSC program would not be expected to
grow in reach and have the same impact on freshwater seafood sustainability.
Inland and freshwater catches are excluded as they dilute the ability to measureprogress on the program’s goals and key strategies.
• Wild capture. Enhanced MSC fisheries that report at a country level as aquaculture
and would exist in the FAO Global Aquaculture Production dataset are excluded.
• ISSCAAP division/groups: Those that are not measured by MSC are excluded fromthe FAO Global Capture data, these are ‘Aquatic plants’, ‘Freshwater fishes’,‘Miscellaneous aquatic animal products’, ‘Miscellaneous aquatic animals’ & ‘Whales,
seals and other aquatic mammals’.

To show where MSC certified fisheries operate around the world compared against FAO
global capture, MSC certified catch was mapped to each marine FAO Major Fishing Area4
alongside pins indicating the approximate location of each MSC fishery. (Page 11)
The method for handling data was the same as used in the indicators for all wild marine
catch engaged with the MSC at the end of the 2022-23 financial year, described above. The
data was filtered to include only MSC ‘certified’ and ‘suspended’ catch; ‘in assessment’catch was excluded. ‘Suspended’ was included in the sum with ‘certified’ catch, as thefishery can still reacquire their certificate if they address the causes of their suspension.
Each pin on the map provides an approximate location of the fishing activity for each MSC
certified fishery.

To measure how the scores of MSC certified fisheries change through a certificate
cycle (i.e., 5 years in the program), Principle 1, 2 and 3 scores received at initial

3

FAO. Global capture production 1950-2021. License: CC BY–NC–SA 3.0 IGO. Extracted from:https://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics-query/en/capture/capture_quantity. Data of Access: 30–06–2023.
4
FAO, 2020. FAO Major Fishing Areas for Statistical Purposes. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department[online]. Rome. [Accessed 1 Dec 2020] https://www.fao.org/fishery/area/search/assessment and first re-assessment were contrasted using boxplots for all currently
certified and suspended UoCs (Page 12).
While fisheries might still be making improvements to close conditions for their UoCs
by the 5th year surveillance report (end of the certification cycle), comparing scores atthe start of the second certification cycle ensures most improvements are complete,
except for particular cases for which additional time is allowed. This provides aconservative estimate of improvements accomplished by the fishery as there could be
new conditions opened at re-assessment due to improved information available or
new Standard requirements.
To ensure the same UoCs were represented in both the initial assessment and first reassessment data, only UoCs that passed certification at both assessments were
included. For details of sensitivity testing for this analysis, see the Annual Report
2020/21 supplementary information.

To demonstrate the changes MSC fisheries have made to reduce their environmental
impacts, all improvements resulting from closed conditions have been counted. Tohighlight the areas of improvement, the number of improvements in the last 3 years
has been counted by elements. (Page 12)
Conditions are set whenever a Performance Indicator (PI) is scored between 60 and 79
during the assessment of a fishery, requiring the fishery to improve the score for that
PI to a minimum of 80 within the period of the 5-year certification cycle. A condition isapplied to all fishery components (i.e. target stock(s), the fishing method/gear, andpractice (including vessel/s) pursuing that stock) that do not meet a score of 80 foreach PI. It is a requirement for a fishery to take action to improve performance in orderto maintain certification. One condition can impact multiple components and generate
multiple improvements.
An improvement is counted when the score of a fishery component (stock,
method/gear, practice/vessels) is increased to a minimum score of 80 through closing
a condition. One condition can therefore have multiple improvements as numerous
fisheries components have made changes to lift their score. Improvements are only
counted when a condition has been fully closed.

The weight of seafood products sold by an MSC licence holder is based on reports by
the licence holder to the MSC. This was summed together for the full 2022/23
financial year and then broken down by the type of product. Product weight includes
all other ingredients and excludes packaging. (Page 23)

Plot showing the number of products sold that carry the MSC label by country over a
period of 14 years. (Page 23)
The country breakdown is where the products are sold, rather than where the licenceholder is located. To report on different markets, products were counted as a uniqueitem in each country. E.g. a tin of tuna sold in France and Germany was counted as 2
distinct products. Live products are products described in the MSCI licence and signedby the Licensee to be sold as MSC-certified that have sales recorded against them forthe reported year.
Products with no reported sales in the latest year are excluded. This was done to avoid
cumulative overestimation over time, as products drop out of the market and are
replaced by others, ensuring the values more accurately reflect products `on the shelf’.

This figure is calculated using the total net wholesale value of all consumer-facing
MSC labelled product sales or purchases (GBP) declared by all label licence holders
for the 2022/23 financial year. (Page 22)
GBP converted to USD using the average exchange rate considering the monthly rates
for 2023 and an average percentage increase (1.4) is applied to arrive at a
representative retail sales value.