Sustainability notes

This is an overview of how the Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association North Sea herring fishery scored in re-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:

Sustainability strengths

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

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

• March 2010 stock assessment indicated a spawning stock biomass at spawning time in 2009 of 1.29 million tonnes showing an increase of almost 300,000t over the previous year and well above the predicted value of 971,000t.
• An ICES Workshop in 2008 carried out extensive investigations of the harvest control rule and the relevance of the reference points leading to a new management plan.
• The new harvest strategy defines three scenarios for fishing mortality based on the status of the stock and can therefore respond appropriately to increases or decreases in spawning stock biomass.

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

• The fishery retains small quantities of non-target species, and therefore does not pose a risk of serious or irreversible harm to them as a result of the fishing strategy. The selection of fishing grounds and the use of sophisticated sonar equipment allows discrimination between pelagic fish shoals, to ensure that the catch is composed almost entirely of North Sea herring.
  
• There is limited interaction with species other than mackerel and horse mackerel. On-board use of multi-frequency sonar systems has increased the ability of crews to distinguish mixed shoals, which has led to a reduction in non-target species.
  
• Interactions with benthic species are negligible; there is little or no capture of ETP fish species or birds in the fishery, and accidental capture of marine mammals is very rare. These observations are supported by information gathered by observers.

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

• Management of the fishery is conducted under the EC-Norway Fisheries Agreement, the EC Common Fisheries Policy and national legislation and provides opportunities for the industry and managers to collaborate in a proactive manner to avoid disputes arising.
• The management system involves scientists, stakeholders and fisheries managers in a process that explicitly defines and explains the respective roles of all parties in all areas of responsibility. Scientific advice from ICES forms the core of the management system, and local knowledge is sought in the management process.
• There is a high degree of enforcement and control and in this fishery, which has increased recently in response to identification of substantial under-reporting, which recent changes and improvements in overall monitoring, control and surveillance have been designed to address. Enforcement includes use of satellite VMS, patrol vessels and aerial surveillance, checked against landings data and paper trails.

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:

• Clear, significant progress should be made to ensure that in future the harvest control tools determine an exploitation rate for the North Sea Herring fishery that is consistent with harvest control rules set out in the management plan for this stock. This will be evidenced by the inter-annual variation of the TAC remaining within the constraints set out in the management plan for the stock.