Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for PFA-North Sea Herring Fishery
The Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association (PFA) North Sea Herring Fishery has a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification as a sustainable fishery. At approximately 80,000 tonnes, it represents around 40% of the total allowable catch of North Sea Herring and is the largest fishery in Europe to have this status.
The certification is the result of an ongoing commitment by PFA members to ensure that the stocks they fish are sustainable, and thus available to feed large parts of the world's population in the future. MSC certified North Sea Herring from PFA members is available as a whole round seafrozen product, as fillets, and salted in barrels. Only limited quantities of the MSC herring are available for the consumer markets in Western Europe. More than 90% of the catch is destined for markets outside Western Europe, mainly West Africa, especially Nigeria, and for Egypt and China. The basic principle of the PFA is the continuity of the fishing industry, the supply of frozen pelagic fish to consumers must be in balance with pelagic fish stocks. The PFA-members have established a policy in which co-operation and the transfer of knowledge about sustainable fisheries play a central role. The MSC certification is a logical part of this process.
