La 50e pêcherie éco-certifiée MSC

Il s'agit de Pelagic Freezer-trawler Association pour le maquereau. France pélagique devient donc la 1ere pêcherie française certifiée !

Sur le site MSC msc.org: "Certified sustainable fisheries reached a new milestone today as the 50th fishery received its Marine Stewardship Council certification. The Pelagic Freezer-trawler Association (PFA) North East Atlantic mackerel fishery has been awarded the MSC certificate following a rigorous 17-month independent assessment.

Gerard van Balsfoort, president of PFA says: “Acquiring the MSC certificate for our mackerel fishery fits perfectly well in our ambition to be competitive and to have a sustainable fisheries operation at the same time".

The PFA North East Atlantic mackerel fishery comprises 27 freezer-trawlers owned by ten companies from six EU-countries. The vessels catch mackerel using single and pair pelagic midwater trawls and land approximately 60,000 metric tonnes of North East Atlantic mackerel. This is approximately 15% of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) set for this fishery and 25% of the European Union's share in this TAC.

The North East Atlantic mackerel stock is assessed as being within safe biological limits and PFA has successfully introduced management measures to reduce undesired by-catches to low levels. An example is the ban on high grading for all PFA vessels, which has been an internal policy of the PFA since 2000. As part of the certification, however, PFA will take further management action with respect to the monitoring and reduction of undesired catches.

The mackerel fishery is the second PFA fishery to get certified. Its North Sea herring fishery was already awarded MSC certification in 2006.
Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the MSC says: “I am delighted to welcome the 50th MSC certified fishery. With the certification of their herring fishery in 2006, PFA has been instrumental in driving the certification of the North Sea pelagic fisheries [2]. I am pleased I can now congratulate them with the certification of their second and the MSC's fiftieth certified fishery".

En parallèle, Bruxelles étudie le lancement d'un écolabel européen pour la pêche. Pourquoi pas, si ce n'est pas source de confusion encore plus grande pour les consommateurs.

Thomas