Seafood Sourcing Policy

Guidance: Small & Medium

Sized Enterprises

Seafood Sourcing Policy Guidance

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SEAFOOD SOURCING Policy Guidance – Small & Medium Sized Enterprises The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) believes any seafood business - even small businesses - should have in place and be able to demonstrate what environmental sustainability criteria they require for both wild caught and farmed seafood products bought and sold. Developing a sourcing policy and making it publicly available is a widely accepted and effective way to achieve this. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) who want to develop or review their own sourcing policy. This document outlines the key environmental criteria that MCS would like to see adopted by SME seafood businesses when sourcing their seafood.

WH Y H A V E A S O U R C I N G P O L I C Y ?

Over half of the seafood consumed in the UK is done so out of the home in fish & chip shops and restaurants. As a result, small businesses can really drive demand and therefore the supply of responsibly caught and farmed seafood. Additionally, consumers rely on the integrity of small and medium sized businesses to provide them with seafood that has come from environmentally responsible sources – fisheries and farms that are not contributing to the decline or degradation of our shared marine resources and environment. A sourcing policy will help a business both supply environmentally responsible seafood and demonstrate to its customers and the wider public how it is doing so.

SO M E C O N C E RN I N G S E A F O OD FACTS :

Approximately 30% of world fish stocks assessed are overfished1, with 57% being at full capacity. These

are both suspected to be higher, yet as many stocks worldwide are not adequately monitored or assessed, they cannot be included in these figures.

In Europe, the situation is worse. Out of a total of 126 assessed stocks, 91 are being subject to overfishing2

– that’s 72%. This is broken down into 88% in the Mediterranean and 39% in the North-East Atlantic. At least another 100 stocks are not assessed.

Worldwide, discard rates average at around 40% of the retained catch, but this is entirely dependent on the nature of specific fisheries

3 .

Beam trawlers have been found to have the highest levels of discards in all locations, with rates commonly around 60% and up to 90% in some North Sea flatfish fisheries

4.

Less than 6% of UK seas are protected from bottom towed gear.

Shark bycatch in some long line fisheries accounts for over 30% of the catch5.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal food-producing sector growing at around 7% per annum. With global aquaculture production estimated to be 66.5million tonnes in 2012

6, farmed fish is approaching half

of the total fish produced globally, at 40% in 20117. Only 4.3% of this is coming from Europe, with Asia

accounting for 88.5% of food fish production.

With aquaculture expected to continue growing to supply the increasing demand for seafood, - to 82 million tonnes by 2050, issues such as of feed supply, particularly based on marine ingredients, impacts of production, disease management and carrying capacity are becoming increasingly important to resolve.

Currently, for each carnivorous fish produced (e.g. salmon), on average, two to three times the weight in wild caught seafood is needed to feed them

8, resulting in a net decrease in fish protein. This can vary

greatly (1.9-20 times) depending on the species and type of operation.

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SC O P E

This guidance has been specifically developed for consideration by SME seafood businesses and is restricted to the environmental issues associated with the capture and production of seafood. This guidance does not extend to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions or ‘food miles’, but is something that MCS acknowledges should also be considered when sourcing seafood.

E V I D E N C E - B A S E D C A M P A I G N I N G

This policy continues MCS’ theme of evidence-based campaigning and dissemination of information relating to the environmental impacts of human activities on our seas and coastline, using publicly available scientific journals and credible documents, reports and data. Supporting references have been numbered in text and are listed on the final page of this document. This document may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium. This is subject to it being cited and re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context. This document should be cited as: Marine Conservation Society, 2013. Seafood Sourcing Policy Guidance – Small & Medium Size Enterprises. V0913.

Here at MCS we strive to ensure all our communications are as accurate and objective as possible. However, if you identify any errors or omissions within this document we would be grateful if you could bring them to our attention. Please contact MCS using the details below.

OT H E R R E S O U R C E S

Other papers and resources that may be of useful reference when considering this document include:

FishOnline website

MCS Fish to Avoid List

MCS Fish To Eat List

MCS Wild Capture Fisheries Policy

MCS Wild Capture Methodology Handbook

MCS Aquaculture Policy

MCS Fishing Method Leagues Table

MCS Policy on Bottom Towed Gear

MCS Seasonality Guide

MCS Fish of the Month

MCS Information on Fishing Methods

General enquiries to: MCS Fisheries Officer Samuel Stone P: +44 (0)1989 561 584 E: samuel.stone@mcsuk.org

Aquaculture enquiries to: MCS Senior Aquaculture Officer Dawn Purchase P:+44 (0) 131 226 3113 E: dawn.purchase@mcsuk.org

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KEY SOURCING CRITERIA

The following criteria denote the environmental policy criteria and position that MCS encourages SME seafood businesses adopt.

The criteria have been organised to separate wild caught seafood from farmed seafood to reflect the differing nature of the environmental issues associated with these separate production methods. The criteria have been presented in a format designed to provide practical advice when buying seafood. Each subject (ie Vulnerable species) is accompanied with: A policy criteria (eg 1a) Position MCS would like to see adopted by a responsible small business;

Ask Some questions and points to raise with your supply chain; and

Why? A brief justification of why this is an important issue.

If there is very little information available for a particular product or fishery and your supplier cannot help inform you, MCS recommends seeking an alternative.

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WHEN BUYING WILD CAUGHT SEAFOOD

1) V U L N E R A B L E S P E C I E S

a) Avoid species inherently vulnerable to exploitation, such as those listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered by IUCN

9 or listed by CITES

10. Such species will most likely appear on the MCS Fish to

Avoid list.

Ask: Does the product or species appear on any of these lists?

Why? Some species have distinct biological characteristics which make them particularly vulnerable to being overfished such as a slow growth rate and late age at maturity. Many vulnerable species include the top order predators like sharks, rays and billfish. The decline of larger predators and subsequent targeting of lower order fish has been termed ‘Fishing down the food web’ as documented in scientific literature

11,12,13.

2) S T O C K S T A T U S

a) Buy seafood from fish stocks that are well managed and in a healthy state, such as those that appear in the MCS Fish To Eat List and/or are MSC certified.

b) Avoid sourcing seafood from fisheries that are depleted or those at risk of becoming depleted. Fisheries with excessively high fishing effort and/or very low biomass will likely be Red Rated by MCS.

Ask: How does your product rate on FishOnline? Is it MSC certified or green rated? If your product is not listed or certified, can your supplier tell you about the health of the fishery? Is the stock being overfished or is it in an overfished state?

Why? A healthy fishery refers to a fishery which is in good biological shape and is not at risk of becoming depleted. Depleted stocks: may have trouble recovering; have reduced capacity to endure threats such as climate change

14, 15, 16 and pollution

17; and cannot fulfill their natural role in the marine

ecosystem triggering flow-on impacts. For example, the steep decline in Baltic cod in the late 80’s early 90’s went hand in hand with an increase in sprat, its main prey species

18. Similarly, heavy fishing

pressure on sandeel in the Northern North Sea during the 90’s harmed the breeding success of the seabird, the black-legged kittiwake which largely depends on sandeel for food

19.

3) CA P T U R E M E T H O D

a) Wherever possible choose seafood from low impact fisheries that have the least impact on other

species and the marine habitat as identified in the MCS Gear Leagues Table. See examples of low impact gear in the below table.

b) Avoid buying seafood that has been caught using destructive fishing methods or from fisheries that regularly encounter a high proportion of discards.

Ask: Does your supplier know how and where the product was caught? Is it one of the deep sea species listed below? If caught using bottom trawl or dredge, how does the fishery avoid sensitive habitats and reduce discards? If longline caught, how does the fishery prevent catching vulnerable sharks and birds?

Why? Commercial fishing can have profound impacts on the marine habitat as well as the target and non-

target species incidentally caught and discarded20,21

. Due to the indiscriminate nature of the gear used, bottom towed gear such as dredges and trawls are typically the most impacting fishing methods. Science has shown us though that the degree of impact depends on the habitat and natural disturbance regime of the environment. This is why, for example, that trawling on deep sea habitats can be so damaging. Less than 6% of UK seas are fully protected from bottom towed gear.

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Discards: Did you know? - Worldwide, discard rates average at around 40% of the retained catch, but is dependent on the nature of specific fisheries

22 .

- Beam trawlers have been found to have the highest levels of discards in all locations, with rates commonly around 60% and up to 90% in some North Sea flatfish fisheries

23.

- Shark bycatch in some longline fisheries accounts for over 30% of the catch24

. Low Impact Fishing Methods

Handline

Pot, creel or trap (with effort managed)

Spear/harpoon

Pelagic trawl (with low bycatch)

Dolphin Friendly & Non FAD25

purse seine

Dive caught

Troll / pole & line

Hand gathered

Best practice trawl eg. low % of discards & adequate closed areas

Best practice dredge eg. Shetland scallop dredge.

Best practice long line eg. low % of discards & low interaction with ETP species.

Deep sea Fish to Avoid:

Grenadiers (Blue hake, hoki, whiptail)

Blue ling

Red fish (Rose fish, scorpion fish)

Rabbit fish

Conger eel

Scabbardfish

Alfonsinos

Orange roughy

Wreckfish . Habitats sensitive to bottom towed gear include:

Deep sea,

Maerl beds,

Seagrass,

Coral communities – soft & hard; and

Other reef types including: bedrock, cobble, chalk and tube worm – Sabellaria.

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4) IL LE G A L , UN R E P O R T E D A N D UN R E G U LA T E D ( IUU) F I S H I N G

a) Seafood that is from IUU fisheries or vessels, such as those that appear on any IUU register, should be avoided.

Ask: Was the seafood caught in the EU or in distant water fisheries? Can your supply chain tell you if

your seafood was caught by a vessel that appears on an IUU Vessel List26

?. Can you supplier demonstrate, through paper trail, where your seafood has come from?

Why? IUU fishing undermines any attempt of sustainable fisheries management and has resulted in the previous overfished and unknown status of many important fisheries world wide, for example: northern bluefin tuna, eastern Baltic cod and Indian Ocean tuna. It is estimated that IUU fishing costs a minimum of £6.66 billion, and a maximum of £16 billion, across the world each year - equivalent to nearly 20% of the worldwide reported value of catches

27 .Often

associated with developing nations fisheries (particularly tuna) IUU fishing is still an issue within the EU.

5) BR E E D I N G S E A S O N A N D M I N I M U M S I Z E

a) Avoid buying seafood that hasn’t had a chance to breed (below length at maturity) or has been caught

during it’s breeding season, as noted in the MCS Seasonality & Length Guide.

Ask: Specify to your suppliers that you want fish that have at least reached their length of maturity, and to not have been caught during their breeding season, as noted in the

MCS Seasonality & Length Guide. Some minimum landing sizes are much greater than the species’ length at maturity.

Why? Fish that are harvested below their length at maturity have not yet had an opportunity to reproduce and have therefore not contributed to the natural growth of the stock. This should therefore be avoided if our shared fisheries resources are to be used as efficiently as possible. Most minimum landing sizes are set in accordance with length at maturity, but because of the unselective nature of our fisheries, this isn’t always the case. Did you know that cod don’t reach maturity until about 63cm in length, but their minimum landing size is 50cm? Similarly, harvesting fish during their spawning season reduces the stocks ability to grow and is an inefficient way to use our shared fisheries resources.

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WHEN BUYING FARMED SEAFOOD

6) CE R T I F I E D F A R M S

a) Try and buy independently certified farmed seafood wherever possible.

Ask: Ask your supplier that you want farmed seafood that has been produced to one of the following production standards. Farmed seafood with these certifications is a better choice and /or will be green rated by MCS:

Best Certification/ Eco-labels Organic (e.g. as per the Soil Association); and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).

Best non Eco-label ‘Business to Business’ standards GlobalGap; and Global Aquaculture Alliance Best Aquaculture Practices (GAA BAP)

If buying farmed seafood that is from uncertified farms, specify to your supplier that your seafood needs to be from farms that have at least undergone an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and can demonstrate how they are managing the impacts of their production. .

Why? Aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry in the world and as wild capture fisheries reach their limit, farmed seafood is increasingly important to fulfill demand. The speed at which aquaculture has developed has left regulation development and enforcement and the needs of the environmental behindin many countries. Some farms, particularly intensive ones, can have considerable environmental impacts noted in the table below.

Impacts on the seabed below sites,

Impacts on sensitive habitats and species,

Escapes

Degradation of freshwater,

Degraded water quality,

Parasite and disease spread,

Interaction with wild species,

Lethal impacts on predators ,

Chemical and antibiotic waste,

Disease transfer to wild stocks.

7) FE E D S O U R CI N G

a) Only buy farmed seafood that uses responsibly sourced and traceable feed ingredients. As a minimum, MCS recommends only buying farmed seafood that uses certified IFFO RS

28 feed

ingredients. Ideally, all feed fisheries should be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) but there is currently a limited supply of these.

Ask: For farmed seafood that relies on certified responsible or sustainable feed .

Why? A lot of farmed seafood (particularly carnivorous fish like salmon) dependson fish feed made from wild caught species like sand eel, anchovy and blue whiting . It is imperative these feed fisheries are also responsibly fished, just the same as any other fishery. These species are important prey for a wide range of species in the marine food chain and unbalance in these fisheries can have significant impacts to other animals in the food chain, including other commercially important species.

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8) WE L F A R E & S L A U G H T E R

a) Buy farmed seafood that has been farmed to Farm Animal Welfare Standards (where appropriate29

) or equivalent standards, that include the slaughter of animals.

Ask: Can your supplier confirm what welfare standards apply to your farmed seafood?

Why? As farmed fish, as opposed to wild caught fish, are reared and contained under controlled conditions – in most cases for the majority of their lives – it is important for these conditions to be suitably habitable and appropriate for the welfare of the fish

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WHEN BUYING ANY SEAFOOD:

9) F I S H E R I E S & A Q U A C U L T U R E I M P R O V E M E NT P R O J E CT S

a) Sourcing from fisheries or farms that have significant environmental impacts, should be avoided,

unless it can be clearly demonstrated that the fishery is engaged in a recognised improvement project that is improving the specific environmental issues of concern.

Ask: If any of your seafood products are known to be associated with significant environmental impacts as noted in the above listed criteria, ask your supplier what they and other suppliers or retailers are doing to improve the fishery or farm? If they do not know, it’s best to avoid. For more about improvement projects, visit the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership website (Fishery Improvement

Projects, here, and Aquaculture Improvement Projects here).

Why? Investment into the development of responsible fishing and aquaculture farms is something MCS would like to see more of. The seafood catching and farming sectors are struggling to both meet demand and recover from overexploited marine/fisheries resources. Where demand remains for irresponsible and unsustainable fisheries/farming products, MCS believes the supply chain that is financially benefiting from these products should invest in improvement projects to address the specific issues associated with the production or harvest of them.

10) TR A C E A B I L I T Y

a) Clearly communicate to your supplier that information relating to the origins of all seafood products sourced should be made available.

Ask: Your supplier to provide or make available information which identifies where and how your seafood was caught or produced. Because the seafood supply chain can often be complex, you must specify the need to see details and receipts for each link in the chain.

Why? Without traceability details, it is impossible to know if your seafood is from (among other things) a responsible fishery or farm and may undermine any of the above listed criteria.

11) C O N T I N U O U S I M P R O V E M E N T

a) MCS recommends monitoring the proportion of Fish to Eat and/or certified seafood that your business sources and encourages businesses to set goals to increase this over time.

Ask: Your supplier if they have sell other Fish to Eat or certified products.

Why? The seafood industry is constantly changing. Advances in gear technology, best practices and management, mean that over time, responsibly fished/farmed and sustainable seafood should become more and more accessible. Small businesses can similarly adjust their targets to reflect this and continuously drive demand for the best seafood available.

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REFERENCES & NOTES

1 FAO, 2012. The state of world fisheries. Fisheries and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Fisheries and

Aquaculture Department. Rome, Italy. 2European Commission 2013. Communication from the Commission to the Council concerning a consultation on Fishing

Opportunities for 2014. Available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:DKEY=728986:EN:NOT [Accessed July 2013]. 3 Kelleher, K. 2005. Discards in the World's Marine Fisheries, An Update. FAOFisheries Technical Paper. No. 470. Rome,

FAO. 2005. 131p. 4 European Commission 2011. Common Fisheries Policy Impact Assessment. EU Discards Annex. Available at

http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/studies/discards/annex_en.pdf [Accessed July 2013]. 5 ISSF 2012. Status of tuna stocks - 2012. Available at http://www.nsrac.org/wp-

content/uploads/2010/08/AIPCE_CEP_Principles_40482a.pdf [Accessed July 2013]. 6 FAO 2013. Global Aquaculture Production Statistics for the year 2011. Available at

http://www.fao.org/fishery/aquaculture/en [Accessed July 2013]. 7 See 6.

8 FAO 2012. Aquaculture topics and activities. Aquaculture feeds and fertilizers. Text by Matthias Halwart. In: FAO

Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. Available at http://www.fao.org/fishery/topic/13538/en [Accessed July 2013]. 9 International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

10 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,

11 Pauly, D., Chritensen, V., Dalsgaard, J., Frose, R., Torres, F. 1998. Fishing down marine food webs. Science, 279: 860-863.

12 Pinnegar, J.K, Jennings, S, O’Brien, C.M, Polunin, N.V.C. 2002. Long-term changes in the trophic level of the Celtic Sea fish

community and fish market price distribution. Journal of Applied Ecology, 39: 377-390. 13

Jennings, S., Warr, K., Mackinson, S. 2005. Estimating trophic transfer efficiency in a size-based food web. For Cefas. 14

Hobday, A.J., Okey, T.A., Poloczanska, E.S., Kunz, T.J. & Richardson, A.J. (eds), 2006. Impacts of climate change on Australian marine life: Part A. Executive Summary., Report to the Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra, 36pp. Available at http://whitepaper.climatechange.gov.au/impacts/publications/pubs/marinelife-parta.pdf [Accessed November 2011]. 15

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Summary for Policy Makers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva, Switzerland. Available at 104pp.http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessmentreport/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf [Accessed October 2011]. 16

Last, P. R., White, W. T., Gledhill, D. C., Hobday, A. J., Brown, R., Edgar, G. J. and Pecl, G. 2011. Longterm shifts in abundance and distribution of a temperate fish fauna: a response to climate change and fishing practices. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20: 58–72. 17

McIntyre, A.D., Baker, J.M., Southward, A.J., Bourne, W.R.P., Hawkins, S.J. and Gray, J.S. 1982. Oil Pollution and Fisheries [and Discussion] Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B June 1, 1982 297 1087 401-41.1 18

HELCOM (Helsinki Commission) 2010: Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea 2003-2007: HELCOM Initial Holistic Assessment. Helsinki: HELCOM. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings 122. 19

OSPAR Commission (2010b): Quality Status Report 2010. London: OSPAR Commission. 20

Kaiser, M. J. and De Groot, S. J. 2000. The effects of fishing on non-target species and habitats: biological, conservation and socio-economic issues. Blackwell, Oxford. 21

Kelleher, K. 2005. Discards in the World's Marine Fisheries, An Update. FAOFisheries Technical Paper. No. 470. Rome, FAO. 2005. 131p. 22

Kelleher, K. 2005. Discards in the World's Marine Fisheries, An Update. FAOFisheries Technical Paper. No. 470. Rome, FAO. 2005. 131p. 23

European Commission 2011. Common Fisheries Policy Impact Assessment. EU Discards Annex. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/studies/discards/annex_en.pdf [Accessed July 2013]. 24

ISSF 2012. Status of tuna stocks - 2012. Available at http://www.nsrac.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AIPCE_CEP_Principles_40482a.pdf [Accessed July 2013]. 25

Fish Aggregation Device (FAD). 26

ICCAT maintain a web page with links to all the registers of vessels that are presumed to have carried out Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing activities. Available at http://www.iccat.es/en/IUU.asp [Accessed August 2013]. 27

Agnew D. J., Pearce J., Pramod G., Peatman T., Watson R. 2009. Estimating the worldwide extent of illegal fishing. MRAG and University of British Columbia. In: Environmental Justice Foundation, 2013. Transshipment at sea: the need for a ban in West Africa. Briefing document. Available at http://ejfoundation.org/sites/default/files/public/ejf_transhipments_at_sea_web_0.pdf [Accessed Feb 2013]. 28

International Fish Meal and Fish Oil Organisation (IFFO) certification programme for the Responsible Supply (RS) of Fishmeal and Fish Oil. 29

Does not apply to crustaceans.