Sustainable fisheries: Letter to coastal state negotiators and national experts

Dear coastal state negotiators and national experts,

The European fishmeal and fish oil industry sources more than 3,000,000 tons of raw material yearly in the form of fish landed directly to the factories and trimmings and rest raw material from the processing industry. A very large part of these fish, either directly or indirectly supplied, are caught in the North East Atlantic.

In November 2018 we sent a letter urging all coastal-state representatives to consider the implications of a continuous lack of binding agreements on the quota allocations of the shared fish stocks in the North East Atlantic.

EUfishmeal is the association of European fishmeal and fish oil producers and represents producers from EU as well as non-EU countries, and includes members from Denmark, Faroe Islands, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain and United Kingdom.

All members of EUfishmeal aim to have a production based on a sustainable exploitation of resources and consequently the sector seeks to meet the international standards and certifications applying to raw materials, production and traceability.
As a direct result of the lack of agreement on long-term management strategies and quota shares several of the North East Atlantic stocks are now in immediate risk of losing their MSC and IFFO RS certifications. This will have major implications not only for the fishing industry but also for the processing industry and the economic value of the fish resources.

Our customers are demanding sustainable and certified sourced marine ingredients in order to supply a growing demand for eco-labeled fish products. Thus, our plead for binding international agreements in the North East Atlantic has now been echoed by significant feed and food conglomerates, serving to illustrate the importance of sustainability and that, in the end, it is driven by consumer demands.

EUfishmeal would like to urge all coastal states negotiators to commit to and establish binding fisheries management strategies and to honor sustainable quota shares for the shared stocks in the Northeast Atlantic.

Yours sincerely,

Anne Mette Bæk,
Managing director of EUfishmeal

Download a pdf-version of the letter here:

Call for the continuation of sustainable fisheries-neg