Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association North Sea herring

Certified as sustainable in May 2006 and re-certified in May 2011.

Summary

Species: Herring (Clupea harengus)
Location: The North Sea and Eastern English Channel
Fishing methods: Pelagic trawlers
Vessels: About 18 each season, depending on quota
Number of fisheries: 1

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Fishery Fact Sheet

Download the Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association North Sea herring fishery fact sheet
for A4 paper

Do you source fish from this fishery?

Show your customers how the fish is caught – download and display this case study from our Net Benefits report.
Download Fishers' stories - Net Benefits 2009 - Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association North Sea herring (PDF, 200kb)

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

As a pelagic or middle-dwelling species which occurs in large shoals this stock is fished by pelagic trawlers.

Fishery tonnage

2011 TAC for this fishery is 70,000 metric tonnes