The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is calling on fisheries targeting marine ingredients to work at improving practices after a recently released report indicated a decline in sustainability globally.
The recently released report compiled by the SFP reviewed fisheries tied to marine ingredients globally and found that while two fisheries improved sustainability performance in 2024, six others got worse. On top of that, SFP said a new assessment of four fisheries in India showed major challenges and a lack of data that meant the actual sustainability of the fisheries could not be fully assessed.
“We’ve seen a steady decline in global performance of key fisheries since 2018, and unfortunately, this year, the picture got worse,” SFP Global Supply Chains Director Dave Martin said.
The report is the 15th edition of the SFP’s sustainability overview of Pacific and Atlantic fish stocks primarily used for reduction purposes and covered a total of 22 stocks and 26 fisheries with a primary focus on European and American fisheries. Across those, only Chilean jack mackerel in the Southeast Pacific and sandeels in Dogger Bank improved their conditions.
SFP said the remainder largely maintained overall performance, but declining sustainability ratings in several South American and European fisheries drove down performance. Notably, sandeels in the Central Eastern North Sea; blue whiting in the Northeast Atlantic; capelin in the Barents Sea; and European sprat in the North Sea and Skagerrak and Kattegat straits all saw performance drop to the lowest level.
SFP said regardless of the underlying cause of a lack of sustainability in the reduction fisheries it analyzed, the reality is that 16 out of the 26 fisheries are “currently facing significant issues,” whether that be poor stock condition or weaknesses in management.
“Currently, more than half of the production covered in this overview comes from poorly managed or data-deficient fisheries,” the SFP report said. “This is primarily due to ongoing management challenges in some of the world’s largest fisheries – such as Northeast Atlantic blue whiting.”
Among the four fisheries in Europe, Northeast Atlantic blue whiting is by far the largest by volume, comprising a higher catch in tonnage than every other stock listed by the SFP combined. It’s also a fishery that has faced continued controversy as member states targeting the species continue to disagree on quota allocations, with tensions recently reaching a boiling point as the E.U., U.K., Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and other coastal nations once again hit a wall on negotiations on catch totals.
Martin said that the reason for poor sustainability ratings has also shifted over time from management concerns to actual stock health.
Skretting Sustainability and Communications Director Jorge Diaz Salinas said the report should be a “wake-up call” for the industry.
“The information disclosed here will allow us to engage more closely with our supply chain to identify and implement actions aimed at ensuring that our operations contribute to healthy fisheries and ecosystems,” Salinas said.
