Meet the fishers

The Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group encompasses all of Scotland’s 25 pelagic vessels, all of the processors and the organisations associated with the industry. Formed in 2007, it’s purpose is to oversee the MSC certification of North Sea herring and Western mackerel. SPSG vessels are large pelagic trawlers and the latest addition to the fleet is the 60m long Quantus – a state of the art trawler with improvements in sonar, three dimensional imaging of the relationship between vessel, net and fish shoal and tanks of refrigerated seawater to store the fish on board.

“This is another defining moment for the Scottish pelagic industry as it establishes its environmentally responsible credentials,” John Goodlad, Chair of SPSG describing the mackerel fishery’s certification.

Mackerel is an oily fish high in Omega 3 oils. It is popular smoked, fresh and frozen. Mackerel from the SPSG fishery is sold in shops all over the world in Japan, Denmark, Germany, France, Holland, Eastern Europe, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. 

Watch the movie about the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group fishers

As part of their Net Gains series, WWF visited the Scottish Pelagic Fleet and explored the fishing innovations that are helping mackerel fishermen to operate sustainably.

Watch the WWF Net Gains movie about the Scottish pelagic Fleet on vimeo.com