Under environmental or ecological certification people in Russia usually mean certification of final products, i.e. whether they are not harmful for human health and whether the quality is good for consumption. It is however also important how the products were harvested and processed; if concerns fish and seafood it includes the fishing methods and rules, processing etc. in a way that minimizes potential damage to natural environment and is acceptable for conservation of marine resources for future generations.

Global markets of fish products have already started to be sensitive both to the origin and processing of seafood. In the countries that have environmentally minded population – in the US, in Canada and in Western Europe there is a number of restaurants offering products certified with the labels of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), though such products are even more expensive. Chains of supermarkets also started to have such certified goods. For example, certification labels appeared on the filets of Pacific Salmons which are caught at the North American coasts. In this way certification reaches and involves individual consumers, restaurants, supermarket chains, and large importers in Western Europe, Australia, and North and South America.

Gradually also the markets of Japan, Korea and of the other East Asian countries, which are ajar from long ago to the Russian exporters, become more and more sensitive to the seafood origin and ways of processing.

Worried about decline of commercial fish and seafood stock, and in care of the state of marine ecosystems worldwide, the largest global fish trading company Unilever together with WWF established in 1997 the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Before that a lot of preparatory work was done, huge amount of documents studied, and eight international meetings with participation of fishermen, processing companies and retailers took place.

Thus, besides the product quality assessments, a new system of certification appeared based on how sustainable are the ways the marine resources are used. Marine Stewardship Council develops standards on the basis on international rules and criteria, including the documents by the UN; universal and worldwide accepted principles of marine resources management have been worked out. International nature conservation standards for operations of fishing enterprises, suggested by MSC, are being successfully introduced in many countries of the world.