UK Fisheries/DFFU/Doggerbank Group saithe

MSC status

Certified as sustainable in January 2011.

Summary

Species:  Saithe (Pollachius virens)
Location: NE Atlantic, ICES Subareas IV, VI and IIa
Fishing methods:  Bottom trawl
Vessels: 7
Number of fisheries: 1

More about saithe

Saithe are members of the cod family and are distributed across the North Atlantic, Barents Sea, around Greenland and Iceland, in the North Sea and as far south as the Bay of Biscay and North Carolina. They are gregarious and known to migrate ontogenetically and for spawning. Adult saithe feed on smaller fish. In the eastern Atlantic, juvenile saithe are distributed in coastal waters – in the fjords on the coast of Norway, for example. They mature at an age around 3 years, and at the same time migrate offshore where they live as adults roughly between 200 and 400 m depth.

More about the fishing methods

The gear used to fish for saithe is a standard demersal rockhopper otter trawl. The trawl mesh size must be at least 100mm in EU waters ICES Subarea VI, 110mm in EU waters ICES Subarea IV and 120mm in Norwegian waters. All the vessels use 120 mm mesh (or slightly larger). Trawling depth is mainly 200-250 m (minimum ~120 m, maximum ~300 m), and trawl duration is highly variable depending on catch rate.

Fishery tonnage

Total catch in 2009 was 7,201 tonnes.

Commercial market

The main commercial market for the UK Fisheries/DFFU/Doggerbank Group saithe is France.

Actual eligibility date

27th December 2010.