The western component of the North East Atlantic mackerel fishery managed by the Irish Pelagic Sustainability Association (IPSA) has entered full assessment with a view towards certification under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. IPSA represented polyvalent vessels have a total annual catch of approximately 6500 tones. If successful, a total of 13% of the 49,643 tonne total Irish mackerel quota will be eligible to carry the MSC logo within the polyvalent segment of the Irish fleet.

The mackerel is caught by a fleet of 17 polyvalent Irish owned and operated vessels, by either single or pair pelagic trawling.  Fishing takes place in the North Sea and Atlantic from Ireland down to the Bay of Biscay. The majority of the mackerel is exported – frozen – with larger fish being sent to Russia and Japan and medium and smaller fish to Russia, Japan, the EU, Egypt and West Africa.

Gavin Power, Interim Secretary of IPSA, comments: “Demonstrating to our buyers that we are operating sustainably is becoming increasingly important. This is why we have decided to go for the most robust and credible standard in the industry. For us, MSC certification is the best way to show seafood buyers and consumers how seriously we take the future of both fish stocks and fishing.”

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council says: “I am delighted that the Irish Pelagic Sustainability Association mackerel fishery has come forward into full assessment. There is growing demand for independently certified sustainable mackerel around the world and the IPSA’s entry into full assessment brings the total number of mackerel fisheries now engaged at some stage in the assessment process to seven.  This is a significant level of engagement for this important species which is good news for the environment, the fishers whose livelihoods depend upon the continued good health of the fishery and consumers. I wish the Irish Pelagic Sustainability Association success with their application and look forward to receiving the assessment report and final determination from their independent certifier.” 

Ends

Notes to editors 

[1] Marine Stewardship Council (MSC): The MSC is an international non-profit organisation that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognised environmental certification and eco-labelling programme 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 utilising scientific evidence;
- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.

MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh and Berlin. In total, over 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme with 35 certified, 80 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Together the fisheries record annual catches of over 5 million tonnes of seafood. 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 catches for human consumption. Worldwide, over 1,800 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org