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SOME of Britain's top seafood companies and retailers have joined forces in a new seafood coalition to keep up the pressure on the EU discards policy, which they want to see scrapped.
The initiative also has the backing of food writer and TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who took the lead in January with his Fish Fight television series.
The companies include Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, The Co-operative, on the retail side and Birds Eye, the Icelandic Group (which owns Coldwater, Seachill and the Saucy Fish Company in the UK.), Young's Seafood Limited (and parent company Findus Group) and Fish4ever. They are the first members of the newly formed Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC).
SSC members, brought together by environmental law organisation ClientEarth, are frustrated with lack of progress overturning the unacceptable practice of discarding (throwing dead fish back into the sea) and collecting adequate data needed to manage fish stocks in order to help the UK’s seafood market become more sustainable.
The campaigners said that most people in the UK eat only five types of fish (usually cod, haddock, plaice, salmon and one of the prime species like halibut). There's practically no market for half the species discarded, although the Fish Fight campaign has renewed interest in some of these, according to one or two supermarkets.
The SSC members say they do not want to wait for legislative reform on these issues, so they have voluntarily decided to sell seafood that is currently underutilised or discarded and to encourage consumers to eat a wider variety of sustainable seafood.
Additionally, they will ask their source fisheries to collect catch and discard information aiding government to assess the state of these stocks; to implement measures that will help protect these stocks (where management measures do not already exist); and to agree labelling standards to provide consumers with accurate information on sustainability.
James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO, said: “The crises facing UK and EU fisheries are ever-present and worsening. The legislative tools move slower than the problems escalate and we cannot afford to wait. This is why members of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition are taking matters into their own hands. It is heartening to see industry organisations taking a lead.”
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose recent Fish Fight campaign and TV series highlighted the problem of discarding fish on a huge scale in the North Sea, said: “If we’re going to sort out the discards disgrace, everyone in the business of selling fish needs to play their part. FishFight helped to amplify a clear message from ordinary people that they want to eat more sustainable fish.
"The Sustainable Seafood Coalition is about giving more people access to sustainable fish and I’m proud to be involved.” Hugh also confirmed that The River Cottage Canteen restaurants would be one of the first restaurant groups to join the scheme."
Nigel Edwards, Sustainability Director of Icelandic Group, said: “As a leading brand (Saucy Fish Co) we are keen to ensure that our customers have access to responsibly sourced fish, as they trust us to do the right thing by actively engaging in making fisheries and fish farming more sustainable. Knowing that products are sourced responsibly is increasingly important to consumers of seafood."
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