The North Menai Strait mussel fishery is the first “enhanced” fishery to obtain Marine Stewardship Council certification as sustainable and well-managed, the Shellfish Association of Great Britain announced on Friday.
“Enhanced” fisheries are wild-caught fisheries that involve some degree of aquaculture, falling somewhere between purely wild-caught and purely farm-raised. MSC’s policy on enhanced fisheries was finalized in July 2009 and includes three categories — catch and grow fisheries, hatch and catch fisheries and habitat-modified fisheries.
The North Menai Strait fishery is a catch and grow fishery that comprises four companies: Deepdock Ltd., Myti Mussels, Extramussel Ltd. and Ogwen Mussels, all members of Bangor Mussel Producers. Vessels dredge young mussels in the Irish Sea from ephemeral beds under special licenses. The seed mussels are then re-laid on sheltered beds in the Menai Strait, where they grow for 18 to 24 months, yielding 8,000 to 10,000 metric tons annually.
“Our customers are increasingly demanding that we can certify that our products are sustainable,” said Myti Mussels’ Kim Mould. “The Marine Stewardship Council label is the most widely recognized and established manifestation of this globally for marine fish and shellfish. We are very pleased and excited to be the first enhanced fishery to have passed muster.”
This is the MSC’s third milestone in two weeks — the Ocean Trawler Barents Sea cod and haddock fishery became the 100th certified fishery and, with the help of UK retailer Sainsbury’s, the MSC product line hit 7,000.
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