The
blue label for the first French herring fishery?
The North Sea herring
(Clupea harengus) is a pelagic fish that has occupied an important place
on the seafood market for more than a millennium. Today, the sustainability of
this stock is at the core of the sector's concerns, and upon completion of the
evaluation, if it meets the MSC Environmental Standard, the fishery, supported
by the FROM Nord, could become the 14th Northeast Atlantic herring fishery to
be MSC certified.
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| School of fish (Photo credit: Tom Weilenmann) |
In FROM Nord’s
"artisan" section, a management committee individually allocates
herring quotas including quota for the fishery’s seven 18-25 metre pelagic
trawlers based at the ports of Boulogne and Fécamp. Their fishing zone is
located in the Eastern English Channel and the North Sea from just North of the
Dutch border to the tip of Cherbourg.
Herring is one of the
most important species in terms of volume for FROM Nord. In 2013, the
artisan ships unloaded 5,618 tons, the majority being destined for
transformation (filleting, canning, salting) and the rest heading for the fresh
market.
Evaluating
the effectiveness of management measures
The evaluation
process will cover the three principles of the MSC Standard: the sustainability
of the target stock, maintenance of the ecosystem, and the effectiveness of the
fishery management system. Through this evaluation, Thierry Missonnier,
Director of FROM Nord, hopes to prove the consistency of the fishery management
measures: "FROM Nord has formed a management committee composed of
producers for pelagic species, herring, and mackerel. Each year, it decides
upon the capture quantity allocated to each ship."
The approach taken by
this fishery is part of a global movement to preserve the North Sea herring
stock, as explained by Edouard Le Bart, Manager of MSC France: "For
centuries, many fleets have fished Eastern Channel and North Sea herring, and
the stock experienced difficult periods in the 1970s and 90s. We hope the MSC
evaluation will be an opportunity to confirm that the stock has been restored
and that this fishery is being managed sustainably. FROM Nord has already been
involved in the certification of pollock, cod, and haddock, and we are pleased
that they are supporting this new MSC certification project. We wish them good
luck for the evaluation, which starts today."
Are
you interested in the evaluation of this fishery?
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| [Jersey, arrival of boats, St. Heliers, Channel Islands] (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress) |
To guarantee complete
impartiality and to be as transparent as possible, the evaluation process will
be conducted by the independent certification organisation, MacAlister Elliott
and Partners Ltd. Anyone w
ho would like to supply the certification
organisation with information regarding this fishery may participate in the
evaluation process by contacting Chrissie Sieben.
FROM Nord, is a
producers organisation created in Boulogne sur Mer in 1965. Among its members
are ocean-fishing companies at the ports of Boulogne sur Mer (EURONOR),
Saint-Malo (Compagnie des Pêches Saint Malo), and Fécamp (France Pélagique), as
well as 202 artisan ships: trawlers, mussel dredgers, and netters unloading at
the ports of Dunkerque Boulogne, Calais, Dieppe and Fécamp, as well as the Gulf
of Gascogne.
The AquaculturistsThis blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.
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