The Icelandic Sustainable Fisheries (ISF) golden redfish (Sebastes marinus) fishery has been MSC certified as a sustainable and well-managed fishery following a 17th month assessment. Independent auditors Vottunarstofan Tún ehf, identified sustainable stocks, sustainable environmental impacts and good management of golden redfish. It is the first MSC certified golden redfish fishery in the world.
The certification includes a commitment to new scientific research and a robust, time-bound action plan that will help to protect coral garden habitats and sponge aggregations. The new research will examine the fishery’s impact on individual species on the seabed and put measures in place to help to protect them from damage by fishing operations.
Protecting the marine environment
Gunnlaugur Eiríksson, spokesperson for ISF, said: “Certified sustainable redfish is an important result for Iceland Sustainable Fisheries. We take pride in having the first MSC certified redfish fishery. Again showing the markets that the seafood industry in Iceland is leading in sustainable fishing.
“Redfish is an important species for our markets in Germany and I hope that this certification and our new commitments will encourage German shoppers and retailers to choose Icelandic MSC certified sustainable redfish.
“Protecting the ocean floor and reducing our benthic impact is of vital importance to ISF. Iceland is a natural home for sustainable fishing, we are proud of our sustainable heritage and welcome the opportunity to work further with WWF and the Smart Fishing Initiative as the certification progresses.”
Gisli Gislason, from the MSC says: “This is the world’s first golden redfish fishery to gain the MSC certification as a well-managed and sustainable fishery. During the assessment we have felt clearly the interest, both from eNGO’s and the market. The eNGO involvement has led to an improved client action plan. We hope that strong demand for MSC certified redfish will incentivise other redfish fisheries to enter into full assessment and make necessary improvements.
“MSC certified fisheries have a strong history of generating improvements with 575 improvements completed across 125 fisheries to date. These improvements are only possible thanks to the support from shoppers, retailers and NGOs and I am confident that MSC certified sustainable ISF golden redfish will prove a popular choice. By choosing MSC certified Icelandic golden redfish, shoppers will be helping to support a sustainable fishery and long-term protection for delicate ocean floor ecosystems.”
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabelling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and ecolabelling schemes include:
- Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilising scientific evidence;
- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
The MSC has regional or area offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Beijing, Berlin, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Halifax, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Santiago, Moscow, Salvador, Singapore and Reykjavik.
In total, over 340 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 240 certified and 100 under full assessment. Together, fisheries already certified or in full assessment record annual catches of close to ten million metric tonnes of seafood. This represents over eleven per cent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over seven million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to eight per cent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 25,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
For more information on the work of the MSC, please visit www.msc.org
Source: Marine Stewardship Council