October 30, 2017 — Sustainable Fisheries Partnership has released its annual sustainability overview of reduction fisheries for 2017, showing an overall improvement in their management.
The report, “Reduction Fisheries: SFP Fisheries Sustainability Overview 2017,” reviewed 20 of the most significant fisheries used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil, concluding that 81 percent of the total catch volume out of those fisheries came from stocks that are “reasonably well managed or better.”
“This compares to 57.4 percent last year – a very large improvement,” according to an SFP press release.
An estimated 1.7 million metric tonnes – or 17 percent – of the total catch used for reduction purposes came from poorly managed fisheries, “a significant drop compared to 42.6 percent last year,” according to SFP.
Of the 20 stocks used for the survey, 10 have fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, 19 have fisheries that are covered by the IFFO Responsible Sourcing certification, and three are covered by fishery improvement projects. According to the SFP, more than two-thirds of the production covered in its study comes from fisheries that are MSC-certified or under full assessment (25 percent), or in a FIP (44 percent). Those include the newly launched FIPs for Peruvian anchovy (north-central stock) and Mauritanian small pelagic species.