Portugal sardine purse seine
MSC status
Certified as sustainable on the 14th January 2010.
The certification body, Intertek Moody Marine, has released the Second Surveillance Report for the Portuguese purse seine sardine fishery, including a re-scoring of the fishery in Principle 1 to allow for the most recent stock assessment and management information. Following the surveillance audit, Intertek Moody Marine has suspended the MSC certification of the fishery, effective from today, 12 January 2012. Fish caught after 12 January cannot be described or sold as MSC certified or carry the MSC ecolabel; however, fish caught before this date may still bear the MSC ecolabel provided it complies with MSC Chain of Custody requirements for traceability and separation. The fishery now has up to 90 days to work with Intertek Moody Marine to put in place a plan to introduce corrective measures. If the certification body approves the action plan, the fishery will remain suspended while the corrective measures are being implemented. Failure to put a suitable plan in place will result in the fishery having its certificate withdrawn at the end of the 90 days.
Please refer to the assessment downloads section for further information.
Summary
Species: Sardine (Sardina pilchardus)
Location: Portuguese coast, ICES areas VIIIc and IXa
Fishing methods: Purse seine
Vessels: 99
Number of fisheries: 1
More about sardine
The sardine can be found throughout the North Atlantic eastern continental margin from Senegal to the British Isles and in the Mediterranean and adjacent seas. It is commercially exploited across its distribution range, with the most important fisheries occurring in upwelling areas.
Sardine is a pelagic fish that forms large schools that off the Iberian Peninsula are distributed along the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean in depths ranging between 10 m. and 100 m. Sardine is not normally found off the continental shelf. Schools of juvenile fish tend to be separated from adults and are found closer inshore, typically associated with estuaries and rivers.
More about the fishing methods
The Purse seine fishing method is a common type of seine fishing, named such because along the bottom of the net are a number of rings. A rope passes through all the rings, and when pulled, draws the rings close to one another, preventing the fish from "sounding", or swimming down to escape the net. The purse seine is a preferred technique for capturing fish species which school, or aggregate, close to the surface such as sardines.
Fishery tonnage
in 2008, approximately 78,000 tonnes was landed. There is no TAC for this fishery.
Commercial market
Most landings are sold through auctions that are run by a state
company Docapesca. A small proportion of landings are under contract to
canning
companies and do not pass through a Docapesca auction. POs
issue a daily quota, partly to standardise market prices at the
auctions. Sardine are withdrawn from sale if they do not sell at the
minimum price level. The withdrawn sardines, for which a withdrawal
price is paid, are frozen and represented when market conditions allow.
Portuguese sardine are mainly consumed fresh within Portugal and (occasionally) Spain. About a third of the national production is sent to canning factories that are found in the centre (Peniche) and the north (Matosinhos, Povoa) of the country. About 50 % of the canned sardines is exported.
Actual eligibility date
The actual eligibility date for the Portugal sardine purse seine fishery is the 13th January 2010.
