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The Faroe Islands has entered its North East Arctic cod and haddock fishery for full Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. If successful products from these two species will be able to use the MSC ecolabel.
Currently, the Faroe Island North East Arctic cod and haddock fisheries involves just a single vessel, the MV Gadus, catching cod and haddock year-round in the Barents Sea using demersal trawl. The MV Gadus is one of only three vessels fishing on the Faroese quota of North East Arctic cod and haddock and the 70 fishermen on board work in shifts to catch 3,748 tonnes of cod and haddock every year. The fish is frozen at sea and landed in Faroese ports before being exported to the EU.
The company general manager Jogvan Hansen said: "We are experiencing an expanding demand for fish from sustainable sources from our customers, and the only way to prove the fish is sustainable is to get it MSC certified."
Camiel Derichs, Deputy MSC Director Europe, says: “Over the last year we have seen a great uptake of the MSC programme among fisheries for cod and haddock in the Barents Sea. Stocks of cod and haddock are very large at the moment.
"This is the result of positive developments in nature, such as healthy recruitment and growth, as well as the responsible management by the Norwegian Russian Fisheries Committee, who managed to keep fishing pressure in balance with the production capacity of the stocks.
"The Faroese fisheries for cod and haddock in the Barents Sea take a portion of the TAC and thus benefit from the good management and the large stock levels. I wish them success in the assessment, which will not only look at the stocks and their management, but will also carefully evaluate the impacts on the seabed, the broader eco-system and by caught species."
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