Nowadays, there are 14 fisheries all over the world being evaluated against MSC standards to assess their sustainability.

COOPERATION
Glaciar Pesquera S.A. and Wanchese S.A. are two companies totally dedicated to scallop fishery and focus their activities into Patagonian scallops. Most of the annual catch (6,000 tons) is exported to USA, France and Canada.

This is a new fishery – started in1996. It is controlled by the CFP (Federal Fisheries Council), body that collaborating with the SAGPyA (Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food) the INIDEP (National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development) and the fishing companies, carried out the necessary research to develop a sustainable fishing plan.
An initial plan operated from 1999 to 2001. That plan was positive because the accumulated experience will help to design a future one. Since the beginning of the fishery, the CFP has used an strategy of co-managemet that includes the cooperation from the two involved companies. Such initiative allowed the INIDEP to get an invaluable database started with the first experimental fishery.

A high level of cooperation between the INIDEP and the fishing companies was developed; those firms are willing to prevent overfishing and assist researchers in collecting data. This is the only Argentine fishery with a 100% coverage of observers on board in the sea. The observers take samples and collect scientific data of every catch and assure the companies' declarations.
Their work is supported by the Fisheries Division of the Argentine Navy and SENASA, that ensure the quality and security of all products, which are processed and frozen on board or immediately after landing. The INIDEP controls all the by-catch to study the effect of the fishery over other species, and the age distribution of the catch.

HOW IS THE CERTIFICATION PROCESS
The MSC has developed “Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fisheries” which are used as standard to guide accredited certifiers in an independent certification program. MSC Certification is based on three principles:

PRINCIPLE 1: A fishery must be conducted in a manner that does not lead to over-fishing or depletion of the exploited populations and, for those populations that are depleted, the fishery must be conducted in a manner that demonstrably leads to their recovery.

PRINCIPLE 2: Fishing operations should allow for the maintenance of the structure, productivity, function and diversity of the ecosystem (including habitat and associated dependent and ecologically related species) on which the fishery depends.

PRINCIPLE 3: The fishery is subject to an effective management system that respects local, national and international laws and standards and incorporates institutional and operational frameworks that require use of the resource to be responsible and sustainable.

Within each Principle there are Criteria that clearly indicate the sustainability of all aspects involved. The certification process has indicators for each criteria. It is a strict scientific process, carried on by a team of specialists with experience in;

a) Certification
b) Fisheries science (in this case, in scallops), involving;