Swedish Baltic cod fisheries start MSC assessment
04 January 2010
Sweden’s Eastern and Western Baltic cod fisheries have started their assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The Swedish fishery is the third Baltic cod fishery to enter assessment this year following the Denmark Eastern Baltic cod in August and the Germany Eastern Baltic cod which entered assessment in November. If the fishery is successful, then Swedish Baltic cod will be eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel once Chain of Custody traceability has been established.
About the Swedish Baltic fishery
The Eastern and Western Baltic Swedish fisheries catch 8,901MT and 2,714MT respectively using mainly demersal trawls, gillnets and longlines. The fisheries run year-round and the Swedish fishery lands its catch into the ports of Karlskrona and Simrishamn after which it is sold to the fresh market or for processing.
Yngve Björkman and Henrik Svenberg, representing the Swedish Processing Industry and Swedish Fisheries respectively says: “This move towards MSC certification is important, timely and well founded. MSC certification will contribute to the Swedish fishing industry both domestically and on the export market.”
Nicolas Guichoux, European Director of the MSC says: “I am very pleased that the Swedish Baltic cod fisheries have decided to bring these important fisheries into MSC full assessment. A lot of effort has been made to improve this fishery over the past years so stakeholders will certainly follow this assessment with great interest.”
Contacting the certifier
The assessment will be carried out by independent certifier Food Certification International (FCI). Anyone with a stake in the fishery can take part and FCI has already identified 17 stakeholder groups. If you would like to register as a stakeholder, please contact FCI on 00 44 (0) 1463 223 039 or through their website www.foodcertint.com
Stakeholders already contacted by certifier
Stakeholders already identified include: Ministry of Fisheries (and Departments), Swedish Fiskeriverket (and regional bases), ICES (Cod Working Group), Baltic Sea regional advisory council, Ministry of Environment, Directorate of Nature, Institutes of Marine Research, Coastguard, Baltic Sea Fisherman’s Organisations, Fishermen’s Associations and/or Producer Organisations, Fishing Vessel Owners Associations, National Seafood Industry Boards, University of Stockholm, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Fisheries secretariat, Greenpeace, Swedish Society for nature conservation, other nature conservation bodies.
For more information about the MSC and fishery certification
