London – The Danish Pelagic Producers Organisation herring fishery has applied for assessment under the Marine Stewardship Council standard for sustainable and well managed fisheries. The DPPO herring fishery is the second Danish fishery to enter full assessment this year and, if successful will be eligible to carry the MSC eco-label on its products.

The DPPO was established in 1984 and currently comprises 8 vessels including pelagic trawlers and purse seines. The stock of herring under assessment is the autumn spawning stock in the  North Sea and Eastern Channel (ISCES divisions IV a, b, c, VIId and IIa)which has also been the subject of previous assessments for the PFA North Sea herring, SPSG herring and Astrid Fiske ‘Maatjes’ herring fisheries. Much of the 26, 165 tonnes of herring caught by the DPPO vessels is exported to Germany.

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the MSC says: “I am delighted to see the DPPO herring fishery enter full assessment. Producers’ organisations like the DPPO are making a huge difference and it is particularly gratifying to see such a long-standing organisation make the move towards certified sustainability. Germany is the biggest market for MSC fish worldwide with around a quarter of a billion US dollars (approx 170 million euros) worth of MSC labelled seafood sold each year and I’m sure that the German processors and retailers will watch the DPPO herring fishery’s progress with great interest.”

The assessment will be carried out by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a certifier with head quarters in Norway. DNV is currently going through the accreditation process to carry out MSC fisheries assessment. For more information on accreditation, please visit: http://www.msc.org/get-certified/become-a-certifier

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Notes to Editors

[1] Marine Stewardship Council (MSC):  The MSC is an international non-profit organization that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognized environmental certification and eco-labelling program for 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 UN FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO “Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries” require that credible fishery certification and eco-labelling 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.

The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh and Berlin.  In total, more than 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 32 certified, 76 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment.  Together the fisheries record annual catches of more than 5 million tons of seafood.  Of fish for human consumption, they represent more than 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 1,600 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label.  For more information, please visit www.msc.org