Certification according to the standards of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is highly demanded in the world market of seafood products. In Russia, a number of fisheries already have MSC certificates, but still there is a significant potential for certification of other fisheries. This requires analysis of the experience of companies that have successfully obtained the certification. Special attention should be paid to small-scale fisheries, whose financial opportunities to participate in certification programs, unlike large fisheries, are seriously limited. In the present work, process of ecological certification of fishery is considered on an example of the gillnet fishery of European perch Perca fluviatilis in the Irikla Reservoir, located in the middle course of the river Ural in the Orenburg Province. The catch volume of perch is 200–250 metric tons during the recent years. Fishing companies that fish in this reservoir have been working on MSC certification for over ten years. Process of certification has shown that the fishery meets the necessary standards, but even after the certification completed in 2016, there is a need for certain activities to support certification. These are in-depth analysis of the recreational fisheries, development of research plans in cooperation with scientific fishery institutes, specifically aimed at informing the certification process, independent analysis of the fisheries management system, detailed study of various bycatch species. It can be concluded that positive experience of this small-scale fishery with ecological certification can be important in improving fisheries management not only in Russia but also worldwide.
Certification of European perch from the Irikla Reservoir (basin of the Ural River) according to the standards of the Marine Stewardship Council