The Faroese great silver smelt fishery has been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.
This is the world's first MSC-certified silver smelt fishery. The fishing takes place around the Faroe Bank and Faroe Plateau in the North East Atlantic. The fishing season stretches from April to September with the greatest landings made in July and August and six vessels take 95 percent of the Faroese silver smelt landings.
The fishery uses lightweight semi-pelagic demersal trawls and catches 20,000 metric tons annually, of which 8,000 to 12,000 metric tons is turned into mince. Europe is the main market for great silver smelt, while minced products are sold to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland and Ireland with about 70 percent sold to Norway.
“We appreciate this fishery’s commitment to sustainability and congratulate the Faroe Island Silver Smelt Fishery with its certification. This is the first silver smelt fishery in the world to obtain MSC certification, which is a milestone. Silver smelt is a less well known species among consumers, but is used in many seafood products, from gratins, to frozen breaded products, to Scandinavian fish balls,” said Gisli Gislason, MSC’s Icelandic consultant. “This certification now allows these products to carry the blue MSC eco-label, which will ease consumers’ choices for sustainable seafood. In the light of growing consumer recognition of the MSC eco-label, this will reward the Faroese Silver Smelt fisheries‘ MSC certification.”
