Proclaiming new Swedish partnerships, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced that it will open a local office in Stockholm. In an unrelated development, a producers organisation declared that they are seeking MSC certification for their North Atlantic mackerel fishery.
MSC, the BalticSea 2020 Foundation and the Swedish Postcode Lottery have agreed to work together to “stimulate initiatives that will drive measures to improve the environmental quality of the Baltic Sea”, they said in a joint press release.
MSC and the Postcode Lottery recently introduced a “Fish & Kids project”, aiming to increase the amount of sustainably produced fish served in schools, as well as provide curriculum-linked educational resources. That programme will now be extended under the new arrangements.
“We are encouraged by the contacts the MSC has had with Swedish fishers, seafood processors, distributors and retailers”, MSC Chief Executive Rupert Howes stated in the press release.
“We look forward to building on them to tackle one of the great environmental challenges. We are especially glad that we are working in schools, as safeguarding seafood supplies for this and future generations is at the heart of the MSC’s work”.
“The new alliance we are celebrating can help to bring about truly transformational change. A sustainable Baltic seafood industry is achievable. The Baltic Sea can thrive as a healthy, vibrant eco-system. The MSC is glad to be helping to achieve these outcomes”.
On behalf of their partner BalticSea 2020, its Executive Director Conrad Stralka added that he hoped that “the introduction of the MSC label in the region will help to achieve a sustainable Baltic cod fishery and enable people around the Baltic Sea to buy and eat cod that they know is fished legally on stocks that are viable, within the near future”.
The new office in Stockholm, where salmon and trout are popular – and eatable – catches for fishermen right in the city centre, will deliver MSC services to fishers and the seafood industry in Sweden, Denmark and Northern Germany.
Meanwhile, and on another note, MSC announced that the Swedish Pelagic Producers Organisation (SPPO) has entered its North East Atlantic mackerel fishery for full assessment under the MSC certification programme.
The fishery comprises 29 purse seine and pelagic trawl vessels and operates from September to December. Its products are sold primarily on the Danish, Norwegian and UK markets.
The assessment will be carried out by independent certifier Det Norske Veritas (DNV), and is expected to take some eight months.
However, some MSC certifications have been under criticism recently, environmentalist pointing out that the assessment process, done by commercial consulting firms, is paid for by those who apply for the eco-label themselves. Over the ten years MSC has been operating, no objection from outside groups during the certification process has ever led to a rejection, and only one fishery overall — for lobsters, in British waters — has been turned down after an assessment has been paid for.