The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s (MBA) Seafood Watch program has updated its influential seafood-buying guide, upgrading three Atlantic cod fisheries from “avoid” to “good alternative.”
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) made the announcement in a press release it issued on Wednesday, adding that it played a role in the upgrade by encouraging suppliers to collaborate with and improve the three fisheries.
The three trawl-caught cod fisheries are Iceland, the Barents Sea and the Eastern Baltic Sea.
“The significant improvements seen in these Atlantic cod stocks have been truly remarkable and should serve as an excellent example of how the seafood supply chain can directly engage in the recovery of problem fisheries,” said Jim Cannon, SFP’s CEO.
In January, the MBA added hook-and-line caught Gulf of Maine cod — in addition to haddock, Atlantic pollock and summer flounder caught— to the good alternatives list. The organization attributed New England’s rebounding groundfish fisheries to effective management practices.
The MBA updates its seafood-buying guide twice a year.
