Dolphins are intelligent social creatures. Although hunting them is illegal throughout most of the world huge numbers are killed as a byproduct of the fishing industry these images prompted worldwide bans of this fishing method but it still exists and was recently certified sustainable with an eco label the m a c we all want the same thing we want to see healthy productive oceans and we want the secret supply say caught it for this in future generations. Sharks are also under threat. Millions of them are killed for their fins for shark fin soup. And soon have the embassies stamp of approval to. The sea. To the dockside are entirely. Untile it. Was that that let. What can you do as a consumer to protect life in the oceans many people eager to make the right choice rely on the blue logo of the m. S. C. The Marine Stewardship Council its a widely trusted label and tires supermarket chains now stock exclusively m. S. C. Certified seafood products. Toughens if you choose m. S. C. Products. And yes you know what i dont know if it makes a difference and loves. This seal of sustainability was founded by the World Wildlife fund and the Food Industry but how trustworthy is it. Were on a journey around the world to find out. Eco fish is a Dutch Company that fishes in the north sea for place its been the m. S. C. Certified since two thousand and nine eco fish protect fish stocks it always did even without the label so why did they pay so much money for it. We were in a very difficult situation because we owe it to rumor that supermarkets wanted to retain the unsustainable fish from the shops and this give us the sign that were at the change so they were unsustainable well i wont say that we are knots and sustainable but we were not certified certification is only to proof that you are sustainable if you see the m. A c. You know then. The discussion stops. Is this label only there to ease the consumers conscience how good are the m. S. C. Standards. Fishing must not endanger the fish docks thats the first m. S. C. Standard here its up elde north sea play stocks are stable but theres more to certification and that the fishery is not supposed to use methods that damage the ocean ecosystem but the eco fish vessels also use dragnets like these which are controversial. Doctor and not frozen is from the geo mar Ocean Research center in kiel germany. The marine biologist supported the m. S. C. For years but then he studied one hundred thirty certified fisheries and discovered that one third of the stocks were overfished and many used harmful fishing methods like bottom trolling. And you get beaten if there is some areas where bottom trolling is prohibited like in the baltic sea the seabed looks completely different. Three because it was just a natural ecosystem there is amazing its colorful we have starfish celt all kinds of alkie its full of life through with a bottom troll net youll leave behind a much desert. With them. And wonder. If their ship in a shooting themselves in the foot too because bottom trolling destroys the nurseries of the young fish why the m. S. C. Rewards labels for the continual destruction of the seabed in nature reserves i have no idea its going to sneak off with you. Are the eco label standards too lax and whos behind the m. S. C. Weve come to london home to m. And c. Head office. Rupert hones is the chief executive. M. E. C. Is now the top eco label for fish founded in one thousand nine hundred seven. Twelve percent of the worlds commercial fish production now bears the m. S. C. Label thats thousands of certified fisheries rupert house doesnt want the standards to be overly limiting. Is it about. Aiming for. Ever greater affection for the top ten cent performing fisheries or is it about engaging asian trash fisheries overfished fisheries fisheries with no menace whatsoever to try and bring them up to a standard that means they might get stated might be hoods feed people and be there into the future i think theres a danger of expectations of affection losing sight of that actually challenges shifting beans where globalisation is on to a sustainable footing. Hows ambitious goal is to see the m. S. C. Label on a third of fish products by twenty thirty the m. S. C. Promoted this figure at the seafood expo global in brussels the Worlds Largest seafood trade fair. The m a c calls itself independent and nonprofit. However the board of trustees of the m. S. C. Foundation is dominated by representatives of the seaFood Industry. The m. S. C. Receives a licensing fee for every fish product sold that bears its logo that adds up to almost seventeen Million Euros a year and that figure is rising. Ever more and ever bigger businesses want the blue m. S. E. Logo on their products not least because buyers and consumers demand it. At the trade fair we need an m. A c. Insider who criticizes the m a seaboard of being more interested in quantity than quality. They certify fisheries that openly violate their own standards. He suggests we take a closer look at the mexican tuna fisheries. Here in the pacific off the coast of mexico helicopters in speedboats are chasing dolphins because swimming among them are tuna. They hunt and feed together and its the tuna that fishermen want to catch. When the creatures are exhausted the fishermen drop in close whats known as a person named this type of fishing recently received m. S. C. Certification the industry insists that they release the dolphins but do they. We had to the states to meet up with sam the buddy. You know does rematch aeration work at home in the midwestern forests thirty years ago he was the first to document the slaughter of the dolphins on video with the same fishing method through his images led to an International Boycott of mexican tuna the only viable option for documenting this fishery and what was happening with dolphins was to go undercover onboard a foreign vessel as a crew member. And maybe. I was a really good cook and so they love me. The first time i brought the camera out weve made a set on dolphins i mean there were hundreds of dolphins trapped in the net trying to fight up just to get that breath to keep them alive a little bit longer. My job was to untangle the dead dolphins out of the net that had been caught and crushed in the power of. The kill hundreds that day. Now they have m. S. C. And now we can reopen the International Gates of commerce to turn of those predicated on killing. Thousands of dolphins a year and the only wild species on this planet that values human life. And sort of dolphin slaughter how can that be. At the worldwide tuna conference in spain we run into antoninus watches from mexico where hes known as the king of tuna. He brushes off our question about sam the buddies film saying its all fiction. Or that they got hold of some rusty boat from panama and hung the dolphins in the nets themselves. But the film did succeed in getting european and u. S. Markets to boycott mexican tuna even today. As acquiring the m. S. C. Seal is the first step to making his tuna accepted again. Yes. There were protests justifiably but weve since improved our methods. Now there are divers on board to set the dolphins free. One of my divers lost his life in the process he says trying to save the life of a single dolphin. Thats how we are thats what we fight for i will not go down in history as the great dolphin killer. I. Am and. We go to Great Lengths to help the trapped dolphins thats proven by the kamis sea to go with us which doesnt just certify anyone who comes along they assessed us for three years. Often say. Yes all of them most of all is that they say we are stressing them what do you think the shocks stress them to. Or the dolphins really better protected today than they were thirty years ago but he was on board. This recent video by a mexican diversion shows that here dolphins are in fact freed from the net but thats not always successful. Dolphins are heavy some get tangled and drown some get injured and die later there were courting to m. S. E. Standards the hunting and killing of mammals is a fishing net that is forbidden in principle and mexican cina fishery has recently received certification unfortunately there are some dolphin thats the satiated with this fishery and no one wants to see dolphins dying on their Journey Towards entering a messy set of acacia the mexicans have worked incredibly hard developing new gear and new approaches to fishing the get includes escape hatches to help dolphins escape they even put divers in the few instances where dolphins are caught in the nets that can help them escape and over this period they incidental dest of dolphins are being decreased by ninety nine point five percent. So is it all plain sailing now after all the emma sees as only four hundred eighty two dolphins a year now die on certified mexican ships. Sam nobody is convinced this number is wrong and that thousands are still dying who do believe. The body thought long and hard before joining us in mexico it was his film after all that caused the mexican tuna industry to lose millions and its most important markets. That line is a city in the state of sin a lot and its the hub of the mexican to an industry the m. S. C. Has certified thirty six machine vessels that supply huge amounts of commercial tuna. We arrive at the tuna fishing port. A vessel is just unloaded at the docks we want to talk with the crew. Or with the scientific observers who are contracted by the authorities to check whats being caught on every fishing trip. And get it but before we could make Contact Security appears on the scene. The man tries to stop us. Wants to know our names. It seems we are welcome. For our next attempt we pay a visit to freedom on an independent Mexican Company responsible for sending out observers and evaluating their data which is also used by the embassy. Their office is supposed to be in this neighborhood but even with the help of a local taxi driver we cant find the place. Apparently the address on their website is wrong. New venture lee we find their new location we want to see whos behind few demar if they really are independent from the industry and if we could speak to one of their observers. Most helpful but its that were not allowed to give information just because a lot of things depend on our work mainly the export business. Or thought it was a government authority. And. Were a combination of private and public sector. On the internet is a lot of your funding. Yes we get money from both and were somehow in the middle neither here nor there. Wasnt any way we certainly can provide information. To. A glance through the m a c assessment documents reveal some interesting information. Some of the observers were asked to take part in an anonymous survey. One of the observers said quote i can provide Accurate Information and i watched and i know but not that which occurs beneath the surface and which is managed by the divers career releasing mostly live dolphins untangled at depth but some are dead or an undetermined condition and they are usually very discreet in reporting details of the launch and they asked if any of the observers had experienced repercussions for making reports and some of them said yes. And they indicated that. And this is very interesting. One of the observers said i lost the bonus for the trip for not bringing all the information since i was not allowed on the bridge because i refused to change the report. Another quote Fishing Company cleared in a written statement that i was persona non grata in their boats. The embassy assessors didnt investigate this is vicious cases and didnt go out to sea with the ships to find out for themselves what was really happening on board. Please we make contact with an observer. Hes nervous about talking to us because hes signed a nondisclosure agreement but he says he would think about it first he was going to work out at sea for two months. To go in spain is europes largest fishing port. This ship has just returned from a fishing voyage in the north atlantic. The cargo coming out of the hold looks a lot like shark the owners dont want us to film the cargo they send over the Harbor Police who stop us filming even though we show them we have a permit were only allowed to turn the cameras on again inside the option. Or pago was a collision long line Fishery Association it has thirty nine ships and catches about a million sharks a year they only make about one euro per kilo on the flesh. The fins however are worth ten to twelve year olds a kilo. Theyre exported to asia for shark fin soup and are especially coveted by a wealthy chinese. In twenty fourteen or pago applied for m. S. C. Certification to help boost their business. Office that did i last environmentalists have a lot of influence in society and they claim we are driving the shocks to extinction that it was but it was not true but the eco worry is attack us nonetheless it with the help of the m. S. C. We want to win over the consumers they trust the m. S. C. There are other seals but in order is good and for the m. S. C. We barely have to change how we work at all this. Little. Chart makes up seventy five percent of their total catch so its their Main Business but they only applied for m. S. C. Certification on swordfish a minor portion of the catch. The assessors then categorize the main catch shark as an accidental capture known as bycatch m. S. E. Protection rules arent as strict if the shark is just bycatch especially for stock protection. Many marine conservationists fear that shark stocks in the atlantic are already endangered. Fredricka crema walk from the organization shark project visits the shark all frequently to monitor the size and weight of the animals. Theyre getting smaller and smaller a clear sign of overfishing. The sea also a lot of these mako sharks arent sexually mature so theyre clearing out the north atlantic so why do they do that and gets to make money on their fins of the gold of the ocean swells. These assessments are not carried out by the embassy itself but by external certification agencies in this case bureau very ties. The fisheries are allowed to choose the agency themselves and also pay their assessors directly. So how impartial is this agency. The reported minutes that overfishing occurring could not be ruled out yet a few pages on it says the stock is unlikely to be overfished. And the final assessment this fishery should be certified according to the m. S. C. Standard. The captain of a shark fishing boat tells us business is bad because there are fewer and fewer sharks. To make ends meet the laws arent always strictly adhered to at sea. Sharks are crucial in maintaining the ecological balance of the oceans. And their fish with a long line like those used to catch cod on an even longer one hundred kilometers armed with over one thousand books. These images of a blue shark being he done board were found on you tube. They were recorded by a crew member of the new wave of c. D. s one of the ships that could soon have em a c. Certification. This is banned on european ships. The fins are cut off the living shark onboard. A process called finning. The fin shark bodies are kept onboard as long as there is still space if not. Theyre just thrown overboard still alive to make room for the valuable friends. That we want to know if this is still common practice today. We investigate for ourselves by following the course of the playa did rian another vessel up for m. S. C. Assessment. That makes regular calls in montevideo in europe why a popular trends shipment point for shark fins. We couldnt get a permit to shoot in the port. And this was secretly filmed in june twenty seventeen. The cargo is frozen shark and we can clearly see the bodies have no fans. You check the ship again on its next return the same story. There are white sacks being unloaded by the time. A ships officer experienced in the shark trade knows whats in this and the that is that the secs are full of fins thats illegal they have to be on the body this isnt allowed to work you know are you sure its fins in there. Yes yes some of them are even sticking out of the sex here on this that you have a peek. Ive done it myself but that was in namibia look at here there was a school near we had like eighty tons of shark on board most of them much it means eight tons of fins at most but up with your complete coverage of but i had ten tons on board. Those so i had the extra two tons of fins. In the ship if. I did that. Thats the end of it and what did you do that way it was on the sea breeze but when the inspectors were gone i am loaded them into the same container as the bodies. There together if i had done that here in spain the ship would have been decommissioned for fifty years. I think i would be very little if any one of the. Well. How could assessors possibly give m. S. E. Certification to a fishery like this. The independent Company Bureau veritas refused to give us an interview. Vancouver canada. We hope to get an answer from dr daniel pauly. Is a professor and highly regarded marine biologist who helped found the m. S. C. In one nine hundred ninety seven back then dr paul he was enthusiastic about the dialogue between industry and conservation. Now he distances himself from the m. S. C. All these people on the whole complex form but i must see i miss it if i couldnt see a good book consultant at work for the certifying agency they all know that certification brings money. To the embassy and at it. It therefore is an incentive to give a positive think assessment because if you give a negative assessment you might not get another contract but i miss c. Ses ok its not our problem because we only certified scottish yes you can eat it all kind of things can be done once you have. If youre if you if you act in bad faith then you can lie you can you can invent all kinds of things and then you add you want to do it rain or fake nose but. The point is that they have lost their soul and the soul is to be a fair partner mediating between the Business Community and the conservation programs and you have gone to the dark side and tally time and time. A serious allegation that the m. Is c. Denies they say they guarantee a balance between history and nature conservation. In the case of the shark fishery and bigos mean the embassy says the responsibility lies with the assessor and that there were objections from n. G. O. S in the m. S. C. During the certification process the fishery voluntarily withdrew its application for the m. S. C. Seal they told us they will reapply for certification at a later date. Being elisia in spain