The production of breaded or battered langoustine tails, more commonly known as scampi, is facing an attack campaign from the Scottish charity Open Seas.
The nonprofit’s “Say No to Scampi” campaign, launched on 12 October, is urging supermarkets to discontinue stocking this consumer favorite and is encouraging customers to avoid purchasing scampi until its fishery comes under sustainable management.
Open Seas said trawling for langoustine (Nephrops norvegicus), which live in seabed burrows in the northeast Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, causes serious harm to other marine life. The organization claims that for every kilogram of scampi caught by bottom trawling, at least another kilogram of marine life dies or becomes discarded waste.
Scotland is the world’s leading producer of creel-caught and bottom-trawled langoustine. According to the Scottish government, the country landed 18,000 metric tons (MT) of bottom-trawled langoustine in 2022 worth GBP 67 million (USD 81.4 million, EUR 77.4 million).
A fishery improvement project (FIP) is in place to address the bycatch issue, but Open Seas claims that progress in making effective change has been too slow. To address the issue, Open Seas is demanding that bottom-trawl vessels avoid fishing in coastal fish nurseries and spawning areas, that all fishing boats install electronic monitoring to ensure the recording of bycatch is accurate, and that they work to decrease their bycatch as much as possible.
“This bite-size food comes with a big environmental price tag for our seas. The mesh of the bottom-trawl nets used are particularly narrow, which means that large volumes of other sea life are caught, killed, and wasted,” Open Seas Communication and Campaigns Head Nick Underdown told SeafoodSource. “We think customers will want to know the hidden and unsustainable cost of scampi and take action. For years now, our supermarkets have been pretending to fix the chronic bycatch problem associated with scampi, but this has not made any practical difference.”
The Scottish fishing industry refuted many of Open Seas’ claims. According to Scottish Whitefish Producers Association (SWFPA) CEO Mike Park, U.K. fishers harvest langoustine in a sustainable manner, with the fleet annually catching and landing lower volumes than they are permitted.
Park said the data Open Seas has referenced is selective and not representative of the current fleet’s practices. For example, vessels fishing for the species use highly selective nets, which include large square mesh escape panels in the roof and larger cod-end mesh sizes. Further innovative technology is under trial, including nets with features that aim to reduce bycatch even further, Park said.
Park said Open Seas singled out a non-commercial gear trial for some of the data it cites show high bycatch rates while omitting hauls more representative of commercial catches.
“The claims by Open Seas are spurious at best and based on fabricated information with the sole purpose of harming the seafood sector,” Park said. “Scotland’s fishers remain at the forefront of sustainable harvesting and have a proud record of protecting the stocks, which runs counter to the accusations of this fringe group.”
Industry body Seafood Scotland also questioned Open Seas’ conclusions.
“All Scottish vessels adhere to stringent legislation in terms of trawling and rightly so; the fisheries being described by Open Seas are not behaviors we recognize,” Seafood Scotland CEO Donna Fordyce said. “Reducing bycatch is a high priority for the Scottish seafood industry. Robust rules are in place governing commercial fishing, and the industry is constantly evolving the way we catch to employ new methods and technology. Many of these vessels are family-owned and operated. They follow these rules because it ensures the long-term sustainability of Scottish seafood for the next generation of fishers.”
Fordyce said fishing vessels fishing off the east coast of Scotland target multiple species in a mixed fishery and that a blanket referral to non-langoustine species as bycatch was misleading.
“Vessels are limited in terms of the areas they are allowed to fish, and secondary stocks are protected by the maximum sustainable yield approach to fisheries management,” Fordyce said. “We only fish within quota to protect species for future generations.”
Scottish Retail Consortium Deputy Head Ewan MacDonald-Russell defended his members, which include Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Lidl, and other chains, on their continuing to offer scampi for sale.
“U.K. retailers are dedicated to sourcing seafood products responsibly, with the U.K. having some of the greatest coverage of independent, sustainable seafood certification in the world,” he said. “Our members work closely with stakeholders and suppliers to regularly review fishing practices in supply chains to ensure they meet the highest standards.”
Photo courtesy of Open Seas
