Danes mussel-in on sustainable seafood

London, 22 April 2008 - The Danish blue-shell mussel fishery of Limfjord will be assessed against the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) standard [1] for sustainable fishing. If successful, it will be the first source of MSC-labelled mussels to reach the global seafood market.

The fishery is represented by  the Danish seafood and fishing company Vilsund Muslinge Industri. It comprises 20 vessels operating in Limfjord, a sea fjord in Jutland which is well known for producing high quality mussels and oysters. Altogether, the fishery produces approximately 100,000 tonnes of mussels annually, with the 20 vessels seeking MSC certification representing 40% of the production.

Post-harvest, the mussels (mytilus edulis) are cleaned, cooked and frozen in local processing plants and are then shipped to markets in Europe, Russia and the Middle East. The majority of the product is sold as Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) mussel meat.

Appointing Moody Marine Ltd as the independent certifier, Soren Mattesen, CEO of Vilsund Muslinge Industri, commented:  “The sustainability of the mussel fishery has been  of the highest priority in Denmark for many years. By getting MSC certification for the fishery of Limfjord mussels, we want to demonstrate this to our customers.”
The MSC’s Deputy Chief Executive, Chris Ninnes, welcomed the announcement, commenting: “This is the first Danish fishery and the first mussel fishery to enter the MSC programme. We are delighted that the mussel catchers in Limfjord see how the MSC can add value to their product and have decided to enter full assessment today.”
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Notes to Editors:
[1] The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international nonprofit organization that was created in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing and its impacts on the world’s oceans. The MSC runs an internationally recognized environmental certification and eco-labeling program for sustainability in wild capture fisheries. It is the only seafood eco-label that is consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the UN’s FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO ‘Guidelines for the Eco-labeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries’, require that credible fishery certification and eco-labeling schemes include:

-  Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
-  Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
-  Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.

In total, more than 100 fisheries are currently engaged in the MSC program with 26 certified, 73 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Taken together, these fisheries record annual catches of more than 5 million tons of seafood. Of fish for human consumption, they represent over 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 40 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch, and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catch.  Worldwide, more than 1,400 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org