This week, Danish vessels will start landing MSC certified Baltic cod in Danish ports, as the DFPO Denmark Eastern Baltic cod fishery has been certified against the MSC environmental standard.
Consumers across Europe will, for the first time, be able to buy Baltic cod bearing the distinctive blue MSC ecolabel.
This is a year-round fishery using demersal trawls and longlines to catch cod in the Baltic Sea east of Bornholm. Baltic cod is an iconic tablefish in both Sweden and Denmark but the eastern stock was considered close to a total collapse just a few years ago. It has made a remarkable recovery and in August 2009 the Danish Fishermen’s Producer Organisation (DFPO) entered this fishery into full assessment as part its plans to have all Danish fisheries MSC certified before the end of 2012.
DFPO president Kurt Madsen said that 25 years ago the Eastern Baltic cod fishery was booming until it fell to rapidly low levels, “Now, only seven years after the absolute low-point, the Danish Eastern Baltic cod fishery is the first cod fishery in the EU to be able to say that it is an MSC certified sustainable fishery – thanks to a once again thriving stock and sound management. A happy ending.”
The DFPO represents around 1100 commercial fishing vessels from ports all over Denmark.
The DFPO originally entered three different gear types for MSC assessment but the set net component of this fishery failed to meet the requirements of the MSC standard. The Eastern Baltic is home to a small population of harbour porpoise, and while no by-catch of harbour porpoise has ever been reported from the Danish Eastern Baltic set net fishery, the level of independent verification of this was not considered sufficient to pass the fishery against the MSC principles regarding endangered and protected species. The DFPO intends to remedy this lack of data in the coming years and will apply for certification again as soon as this issue is solved.
