Norway spring spawning herring

Kyllej — 2008-03-11T09:05:00Z

MSC status

Certified as sustainable on the 30th April 2009.

Summary

Species: Herring (clupea harengus)
Location: North East Atlantic, EEZ’s of Norway, Russia, Iceland, EU and Faroe Islands. Jan Mayen Fisheries Zone and Svalbard Fisheries Protection Zone, International waters
Fishing methods: Purse-seine and pelagic trawl
Vessels: According to Norges Sildesalgslag, 113 seine vessels, 40 pelagic trawlers and 245 coastal purse seine vessels fished for
Norwegian spring spawning herring in 2007.
Number of fisheries: 1

Subscribe to RSS - add this to your reader to receive an update when new information on this fishery is added.

More about herring

This pelagic species is distributed widely throughout the North Sea. The herring’s unique habit is that it produces eggs which are attached to a gravelly matter on the seabed. This points to an evolutionary history in which herring spawned in rivers and at some later date re-adapted to the marine environment. The spawning grounds in the southern North Sea are the beds of rivers which existed in geological times and some groups of spring spawning herring still spawn in very shallow inshore waters and estuaries. Herring are mainly plankton feeders although they do eat some small fish.

More about the fishing methods

On average about 57% of the Norwegian spring spawning herring catch originated from purse seiners, 12% from pelagic trawlers, and 31% from coastal purse seiners.

Both small coastal vessels and larger offshore vessels operate purse seine gears. Industrial purse seine vessels are larger than 36m, with coastal purse seiners being smaller than 33m in length.

Pelagic trawl vessels operate offshore. These vessels are currently between 24 and 68m in length.

Fishery tonnage

926,000 tonnes

Commercial market

Most of the Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring (Clupea harengus) landed is for human consumption. In 2006, less than 10% of the Norwegian landings were processed for meal and oil. The herring landed by the Norwegian fleet is almost exclusively exported, mainly frozen. The main markets for Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring is currently the eastern Europe and the EU.

Meet the fishers

Jessica Wenban-Smith — 2008-05-28T15:25:00Z

Meet the Norway spring spawning herring fishers

More information coming soon

Sustainability notes

Kyllej — 2008-03-03T12:10:00Z

This is an overview of how the Norway spring spawning herring fishery scored in assessment against the MSC standard. For the certifiers evaluation please download the full public certification report with detailed information on the performance of this fishery against the criteria of the MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing.

The fishery scored as follows in assessment against the MSC standard for sustainable fishing. The highest possible score for each principle is 100 and a fishery must score at least 80 against each principle to get certified:

MSC Principle	Fishery Performance
Principle 1: Sustainability of Exploited Stock	Overall: 90, Pass
Principle 2: Maintenance of Ecosystem	Overall: 86, Pass
Principle 3: Effective Management System	Overall: 85, Pass

Sustainability strengths

Some points on which the fishery scored over 90 are outlined below.

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

The species is readily identified by fishers and by regulators and is recorded appropriately. The life history is particularly well understood as this species has been the subject of research and monitoring for many years.
The geographical range of the species is well defined as are the spawning, nursery and feeding grounds and the migration routes linking them.
The stocks are regularly monitored on an annual basis through a number of independent larval, juvenile and adult surveys, using a range of proven methodologies.
All fishing methods and gear types employed in the fishery are known. In-situ observations are made of fishing practices. Comprehensive knowledge is recorded and regularly updated, on the size and composition of the fleets.
Stocks are maintained above well defined limits system, below which there is an appreciable risk of impairing reproductive capacity of the stock, and effectively enforced by a robust quota system which follows ICES advice which is based on the results of the extensive surveys and fisheries modeling.

Principle 2: the impact of the fishery on the marine environment

The fishery benefits from the excellent knowledge of the ecosystem of the region with some datasets extending back to the 1930s. As a result, the nature, sensitivity and the distribution of all habitats relevant to the fishing operations are known in detail and are based on recent scientific information.
As the fishing is pelagic in nature, there is no direct impact of gear on the marine environment. The possibility of accidental gear loss is also considered negligible.
The fishery has very limited interaction with non-target species. Discarding of any part of the catch is illegal for all Norwegian vessels.

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

The fishery has very limited interaction with non-target species. Discarding of any part of the catch is illegal for all Norwegian vessels.
The management system in Norway is comprehensive and encompasses the entire herring fishery in Norwegian waters and those participating in it, including participation of fishers from other nations.
The data gathering and assessment methodology is subject to continuous internal scientific review within ICES, with participation by scientists from many countries.
The system observes all legal and customary rights of people dependent upon fishing under a formal codified system.
There is an active local research programme which aims to provide scientific information to meet the requirements of management of the fishery.

Challenges

In order to ensure its continuing sustainable operation this fishery made a commitment to improving its performance where it scored between 60-80. Some of the actions the fishery has committed to are:

Agree within the first year of certification on any necessary reporting formats for the recording of information on the nature and incidence of the slipping of catches.
Provide evidence within two years of proactive support of research and observer monitoring of slippage.
Provide evidence within the first year of certification that a regular sampling programme of catches be implemented to provide statistically robust estimates of the by-catch of all species.

Unit of certification

Kyllej — 2008-03-03T12:10:00Z

The unit of certification is the unit that is assessed by certifiers against the MSC environmental standard. It is defined as the fishery or fish stock (a biologically distinct unit) combined with the fishing method/gear and practice (the vessel/s) pursuing that stock. This is set at the beginning of the assessment.

The fishery: Unit of certification

The certified Norway spring spawning herring fishery is defined as:

Species	Herring (clupea harengus)
Geographical range of fishing operations	North East Atlantic, EEZ’s of Norway, Russia, Iceland, EU and Faroe Islands. Jan Mayen Fisheries Zone and Svalbard Fisheries Protection Zone, International waters
Method of capture	Purse-seine and Pelagic trawl
Stock	Norwegian spring spawning herring
Management	The main agreement for dividing and managing the TAC is the coastal states agreement between EU, Norway, Iceland, Faroes and Russia. The agreements are implemented in Norway under National management systems and advised by ICES.
Client group	Norwegian vessels only for Norges Sildesalgslag.