The Russian Pollock Catchers Association's Sea of Okhotsk Pollock fishery has retained its Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.
The fishery, which was first certified in 2013, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pollock from the North Pacific, sending products to 20 countries across five continents. It involves 30 pollock fishing companies, which collectively landed 71,500,000 metric tons of pollock in 2017. The vessels process catch on board, making frozen whole and gutted product, with some doing additional value-added processing of fillets.
As part of its initial certification in 2013, the fishery was given eight conditions of improvement it needed to meet in order to be considered for recertification this year. According to the MSC, three conditions were aimed at improving the scientific basis of stock assessment and fishery management; three conditions concentrated on minimizing the fishery's impact on the Sea of Okhotsk ecosystem, including fishing operations' interaction with endangered, threatened and protected species; and two conditions were set for the management process.
“Closure of these conditions has led to greater transparency and closer involvement of stakeholders, including environmental NGOs,” the MSC said in a press release.
The improvements made in the fishery were praised by Andrey Vinnikov, the director of sustainable marine fishery program for WWF Russia.
“At present, we are satisfied with the progress observed during the five-year period since the first certificate was issued. The Association has already taken into account a number of comments made by WWF during annual audits,” Vinnikov said. “At present, WWF-Russia and PCA [are] consider[ing] the implementation of some new projects, including the reduction of bycatch of mollusks. I hope that for the coming years WWF-Russia and the PCA will continue partnering to improve the sustainability of the Russian Pollock fishery.”
Upon the announcement of the recertification, Camiel Derichs, the director of MSC Europe, said the PCA received higher scores in many assessment category during its recertification than during its initial application.
“Over the past five years, the PCA, scientists, management and NGO actors in Russia have worked hard to address the conditions placed on the fishery, resulting in real improvements,” Derichs said.
