Major seafood businesses to take lead on eliminating fish discards

New Sustainable Seafood Coalition Formed To Eliminate Fish Discards

Major businesses selling seafood including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, The Co-operative, Birds Eye, the Icelandic Group (parent company of The Saucy Fish Co.), Young's Seafood Limited (and parent company Findus Group) and Fish4ever are the first members of the newly formed Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC). 

SSC members, brought together by environmental law organisation ClientEarth, are frustrated with lack of progress overturning the unacceptable practice of discarding (throwing dead fish back into the sea) and collecting adequate data needed to manage fish stocks in order to help the UK’s seafood market become more sustainable.

Half of all fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back overboard dead

The majority of UK consumers eat mostly five different species of fish, placing unsustainable pressure on just a few species. Of half of all fish discarded there is currently no market for these species among UK consumers. 

A haul of small tuna and lots of bycatch (Photo: Greenpeace)

As SSC members do not want to wait for legislative reform on these issues they have voluntarily decided to sell seafood that is currently underutilised or discarded and to encourage consumers to eat a wider variety of sustainable seafood.

Additionally, they will ask their source fisheries to collect catch and discard information aiding government to assess the state of these stocks; to implement measures that will help protect these stocks (where management measures do not already exist); and to agree labelling standards to provide consumers with accurate information on sustainability.

James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO, said: “The crises facing UK and EU fisheries are ever-present and worsening. The legislative tools move slower than the problems escalate and we cannot afford to wait. This is why members of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition are taking matters into their own hands. It is heartening to see industry organisations taking a lead.”

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose recent Fish Fight campaign and TV series highlighted the problem of discarding fish on a huge scale in the North Sea, said: “If we’re going to sort out the discards disgrace, everyone in the business of selling fish needs to play their part. FishFight helped to amplify a clear message from ordinary people that they want to eat more sustainable fish. The Sustainable Seafood Coalition is about giving more people access to sustainable fish and I’m proud to be involved.” Hugh also confirmed that The River Cottage Canteen restaurants would be one of the first restaurant groups to join the scheme.

Richard Luney, M&S Wild Fish & Aquaculture Manager, said: “Marks & Spencer is proud to support the Sustainable Seafood Coalition. We know that responsible fish sourcing is really important to our customers and we want to make it as easy as possible for them to buy food they can trust. M&S are looking forward to working with the coalition to improve the guidance on seafood labelling to ensure there is a consistent approach across all retailers which will ultimately make it easier for our customers to make informed decisions regarding the fish and seafood they buy. We were the first food retailer to switch to 100 percent pole and line caught tuna back in 2009 whether it be in our sandwiches, pasta bakes or cans of tuna, and we will continue to work closely with our suppliers and NGOs to ensure our food has been made in the most compassionate way for the environment.”

Steven Butts, Head of Corporate Responsibility, Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC, said: “We are looking forward to supporting the work of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition to promote greater interest in a wider variety of fish and more uniform labelling. At Morrisons customers can choose from more than 50 varieties of fish when in season. In store we have over 1200 fully trained fishmongers who are always available with helpful advice on hand and to encourage customers to try different type of fish throughout the year. We have led the market by labelling all our fresh counter fish with information on where and how it was caught. This enables our customers to make well informed decisions about the fish they buy and demonstrates our commitment to increased transparency.”

Morrisons supermarket is supporting the Sustainable Seafood Coalition to promote greater interest in a wider variety of fish and more uniform labelling (Photo: Morrisons)

Jeremy Ryland Langley, Specialist Buyer Fish, Waitrose, said: "We believe it's imperative to work collectively on this issue. Protecting the World's fish stocks whilst ensuring a sustainable supply of fish for future generations is one of our biggest environmental challenges and it's much too important to be left to the law of supply and demand to sort it out. We launched our responsible fishing policy over 15 years ago, which means all our fish must be: caught from a well managed fishery, using responsible methods, not a species regarded as under threat or endangered, and fully traceable from catch to consumer. And we know our customers appreciate the ethical option being the easy option - as we sell over double the amount of fish we should for our size."

Waitrose responsible fishing policy was launched over 15 years ago (Photos: Waitrose)

Nigel Edwards, Sustainability Director of Icelandic Group, owners of The Saucy Fish Co., said: “The Saucy Fish Co. is proud to be the first to sign up to the Sustainable Seafood Coalition. As a leading brand we are keen to ensure that our customers have access to responsibly sourced fish, as they trust us to do the right thing by actively engaging in making fisheries and fish farming more sustainable. Knowing that products are sourced responsibly is increasingly important to consumers of seafood. The Saucy Fish Co. is looking forward to working closely with the coalition to improve the harmonisation of seafood labels at UK and EU levels and leading the way in the ‘fish fight’ for sustainable seafood.”

Kate Jones, Head of Food Product, Policy and Technology at The Co-operative Group, said: “We believe the Client Earth Sustainable Seafood Coalition will be an important new force in helping to bring about a much-needed reduction in fish discards. The Co-operative takes this issue very seriously, and has a stringent Responsible Fish Sourcing Policy for all our own-brand fish, including canned and frozen, and all our own-brand products containing fish, such as sandwiches. The Co-operative tops the latest Marine Conservation Society (MCS) league table of supermarkets for supporting and selling sustainably-sourced fish and is the only retailer to have eliminated all fish from the MCS Good Fish Guide’s ‘fish to avoid’ list, and has the largest percentage of sales from the MCS’s ‘fish to eat’ list."

Because discards are not monitored, it is difficult to know exactly how many fish are being thrown away (Photo: groundfishforum.org)

Peter Hajipieris, Chief technical & Sustainability Officer for the Birds Eye Iglo Group, said: "We welcome all initiatives which champion sustainable fisheries development as this is a key focus of our sustainability programme Forever Food. We have long recognised the need to educate UK consumers to accept a wider of range of fish species which is why in 2007 we introduced the Birds Eye Omega-3 Fish Finger. The Birds Eye Omega-3 Fish Finger launch was the biggest branded launch in the fish sustainability arena ever in the UK with 78 porcent of consumers switching from Cod to Alaskan Pollock, equivalent to 1.5 million fish a year. The work of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition is a helpful addition to existing industry efforts to better utilise fish resources and we look forward to working with our peers and NGO colleagues to help drive this further forward".

Mike Mitchell, CSR Director, Young's Seafood Limited (and parent company Findus Group), said: "Many of the fish that are discarded are tasty and nutritious, but many consumers simply don't know these species yet. We have campaigned on discards for many years and are actively working to inspire consumers to try a wider variety of fish through our Fish for Life programme. As part of the Coalition, we hope to use our fish expertise and experience to drive further change and improvement through the industry as a whole."

Fishing for one species often means catching another, and if people don’t want them or fishermen are not allowed to land them, the only option is to throw them overboard

Charles Redfern, Managing Director, Fish4ever, said: “Sustainability is and has been championed by many organisations small and large. It is a laddered system and never perfect - a journey, not a destination. I believe that behaving ethically and sustainably should not be down to individual company initiatives but should be written and transcribed into the legal practise of how business is allowed to operate. Unfortunately that is not the way the world is now. I therefore welcome every and all initiatives that put companies together to battle and promote the common good.”

Andrew Kuyk, Director of sustainability at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said: “FDF is already demonstrating a clear commitment to achieving more sustainable fisheries through our members’ existing responsible sourcing practices and our involvement with the AIPCE/WWF/EUROCOMMERCE alliance on CFP reform. We are delighted that many of our members have also signed up to this complementary initiative.”

About The Sustainable Seafood Coalition

Sustainable Seafood Coalition has been set up by ClientEarth, and organisation of activist lawyers committed to securing a healthy planet.

Fishermen are not allowed to land any over-quota fish; if they accidentally catch them they have to throw them overboard before they reach the docks  (Photo: NOAA)

The membership of the Coalition is set to expand to include further seafood retailers, restaurants, celebrity chefs and other foodservice businesses, but also fishmeal and pet food processors and manufacturers, as well as environmental organisations.

The Sustainable Seafood Coalition will coordinate all sectors of the seafood industry, start taking action immediately and have an immediate impact on seafood sourcing, data collection and labelling before the reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. 

SSC first meeting will be held on May 12th in London.

Source: The Sustainable Seafood Coalition

Margaret E.L. Stacey
Editor Companies and Products
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media

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