Certificate of the Marine Stewardship Council- MSC label. Photo: Elma Okic
WWF, anglers and coastal fishermen have questioned the haste with which the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the commercial fishing of central Baltic herring and sprat.
MSC is the official global certification for wild-caught fish, intended to provide assurance that the catch is sustainable and well-managed in the long term. In July, the MSC approved the 5-year certification of the Danish, Swedish, German and Estonian pelagic (near-surface open sea) fisheries, specifically for Baltic Sea sprat and herring. WWF and partner organization the Estonian Fund for Nature raised several issues to the certification body during the stakeholder assessment process. These included concerns of high fishing pressure on some of the stocks and that too little consideration was given to the role of these species in the ecosystem as an important food source for other overfished species. These issues are compounded by misreporting which yields inaccurate catch rates and stock availability figures.
The MSC certification body based its decision on data supplied by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which considers that the stocks of sprat and central Baltic herring are within biologically sustainable limits. However, this does not ensure that catches are correctly reported. Control of landings and onboard monitoring to put an end to misreporting are additional requirements to ensure sustainable fisheries. Until this occurs, NGOs question the validity of the MSC certification of the fisheries in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden for Baltic herring and sprat.
This article is part of the WWF Baltic Newsletter – December 2020
