The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has developed an environmental standard for sustainable fishing. Well-managed fisheries that are independently certified as meeting this environmental standard may use the blue MSC ecolabel on seafood from their fishery.

Strict rules are in place to control how the ecolabel can be used. Before a store can sell fish or seafood with the MSC label, every company in the supply chain must be certified as meeting the MSC Chain of Custody standard for seafood traceability. This ensures that products with the MSC ecolabel can be traced back to a certified fishery.

Consumers, concerned about overfishing and its environmental and social consequences are encouraged to choose seafood products with the blue MSC ecolabel, proving they are from fisheries which are certified sustainable. This will assure them that the product has not contributed to the environmental problem of overfishing.